Mask of Darkness to the Island of Dreams
by Yolashillinia
Summary: Novelization of Majora's Mask and Link's Awakening in the same story. Sequel to Timeless Ocarina. Written 2007. Link/OC, Link/Marin. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Written in 2007

Chapter 1

Zelda touched his shoulder gently.  
"We ought to go now…"  
Link sobbed still into Rana's cold shoulder, but at Zelda's insistence, gently laid the still girl on the stony ground and stood. Zelda looked in his eyes and felt her insides tremble: they were eyes that did not see. The deep blue was grey and dull.  
"Link…" With a simple call on the power of the Triforce, they shifted to the Sacred Realm.  
"Link, you must now go back."  
"Where?" he asked dully, not really caring about the answer.  
"Go back to when you were supposed to be… to live the years you missed."  
"Oh. Right. Rauru said so once."  
"Give me the Ocarina. I'll send you."  
"I shouldn't stay in Hyrule then. It will interfere with history."  
"That is correct."  
Link passed the princess the blue ocarina. "You will… bury her?"  
"Yes," whispered Zelda gently. She raised the Ocarina to her lips and blew.  
Link felt the weightlessness and forgetfulness of warp travel surround him, and let himself go.  
He saw himself flying over Hyrule, for a brief instant. Everyone in Hyrule was gathered in Lon Lon Ranch. Epona was safe there, along with several people Link assumed Rana had rescued from the dungeons of Ganondorf's Tower. Mido and the Kokiri, Darunia, and the Gorons, including the two most massive, King Zora and the Zorans… Shoza and Bitu were there. Even the Gerudo were there, dancing in their sinuous, hypnotising style. Ingo was thoroughly drunk, and shouting the praises of Talon as the two danced with an arm about each other's shoulders. Malon's pretty voice sang to an accompaniment played by people in all four races.  
His gaze turned towards Death Mountain. There were the six Sages. Saria was sitting on Darunia's head. The Sages turned themselves into coloured flashes of light and sped over Hyrule Field. Some at the party pointed upward, clapping and cheering. A white flash sped to join them, and Link knew it was Zelda.  
Again his vision blacked out and he slept in the embrace of time.

He found himself in front of the Pedestal of Time, as a small child, holding the drawn Master Sword in his small hands. Stepping forward, he plunged the silver blade into the pedestal and waited. Navi flew up to the window, and then returned to him as he turned his back and walked steadily out of the chamber. The Door of Time rumbled shut behind him.  
Tears began to fall from his eyes again as he exited the Temple of Time into bright sunlight. It must have been only a day or two after he had entered it; Ganondorf had not yet destroyed anything.  
Someone, a grown-up man with a moustache, saw him. "Hey, little boy, what's the matter?"  
"On the day of my greatest victory, my greatest defeat," Link flung back, and ran from the town.

He fled through the Field, towards his home, Kokiri Forest. A slow goal was forming in his mind.  
Then he halted, deciding to postpone his goal for a while. For the next year, he hid himself away, wandering the very outskirts of Hyrule, exploring the pathless mountains that surrounded it. No one saw him; he saw no one. Navi stayed with him; the faithful little fairy saw her partner become even more silent than he had been, but said nothing about it.  
One day, nearing the autumn equinox, he returned to Hyrule Field.  
At the edge of the forest, he called Epona. He had no idea what Malon would think of her filly suddenly running off and disappearing for some time. He had no idea how long he would go with Epona. She galloped up to him.  
"Navi, am I able to ride her yet?" he asked.  
"Yes," Navi said. "She's big enough to support you without injuring herself."  
"That's good." Link mounted bareback and wound his hands in the black-white mane.  
The three rode for many days into the forest, sometimes walking together, sometimes Navi on Link's hat and Link riding Epona.  
About four days from the last place Link recognized – but he was not lost, because he was always going south – the forest was so great and solemn and still that he slowed Epona to a walk, looking at the lances of sun piercing the forest.  
Suddenly Epona screamed and reared. Link felt himself flung off, and hit his head on a mossy stone.

Some minutes later, all his muscles tensed and he frowned mightily. Sitting up carefully, he rubbed his aching head. He heard the sound of an ocarina played in single notes and the sound of several people giggling.  
He looked over. Epona was shaking, faced by a Skull Kid and two fairies. One was white, and one was black. No: as he looked closer, one had a creamy tinge, and one was dark purple. The Skull Kid was playing around with the Ocarina of Time! As Link watched, the light fairy bopped the dark fairy, squeaking at it. Link studied them for a moment longer, and found Navi: trapped in a bottle at the Skull Kid's belt. She was bouncing frantically, trying to get out.  
Link didn't pay any attention to the words of the three misfits. He stood, a noiseless snarl of rage parting his lips. The two fairies squeaked, and the Skull Kid whirled.  
If the Skull Kid was one of those that Link knew, he couldn't tell. The face was entirely covered in an elaborately painted purplish-red mask with bright yellow eyes. Link's fury burst out, and he flung a hasty punch with his right, which the Skull Kid ducked easily, and a better one with his left. The Skull Kid jumped high over Link's head as he did so, though, and landed on Epona's back. She screamed and ran. Link dove sideways and managed to catch the Skull Kid's foot.  
They ran for several meters, sticks and mossy stones tearing Link's Kokiri tunic. Then a tree loomed up and Link knew no more for a long while.

When he woke once more, he simply sat there for some time.  
'What do I do now?' he asked himself.  
'Duh, you idiot,' his thought replied, 'you go after your fairy and your horse.'  
'Why bother?'  
At last he cried out: "No! They're counting on me. I'll not let them down again!"  
He jumped to his feet and looked for Epona's footprints. They headed clearly for a log tunnel. Link ran through and found a ramp of stumps which Epona could conceivably have climbed.  
He jumped from one to another, practicing the side flip he had developed during the previous autumn. It worked very well at propelling his momentum where he wanted it. At the top of the stair was another tunnel, very dark this time.  
It was so dark that Link did not know when his feet left the ground and he fell for a long time, a long, long time.  
He landed with a whump in a bed of long grass.  
There, before him, sat the Skull Kid in midair. The mask stared with unblinking glowing eyes. They were malevolent. The two fairies floated above each shoulder.  
"Give me back my fairy partner and my horse!" Link shouted, his voice cracking hoarsely.  
The Skull Kid laughed. "You want them, come and get them. Well, you can get the fairy anyway. That horse of yours was stupid, so I got rid of it."  
Link jerked in horror, and screamed wordlessly at the Skull Kid. The Skull Kid giggled again.  
"You're funny. I think I'll make you even funnier, how about that?" The Skull Kid stood up, midair, put his hands on his knees, and began to shake the mask.  
The rattle it made was a dry, deafening sound, louder than it ought to be, piercing Link's ears. He felt magic taking control of him and writhed. Dimly he heard the Skull Kid's laughter as the rattle grew louder.  
It seemed like he was surrounded by Deku Scrubs, all nosing in and pushing at him, snuffling at his sides with their big wooden noses. He struggled, trying to get away from the horror their touch invoked. He turned his head.  
Behind him there was a huge scrub, easily twice as tall as the twelve-and-three-quarters-years boy. Before Link had time to cry out, it sucked him in through its nose.  
He felt a slow, crushing sensation throughout all his limbs. They stiffened and straightened. Now he screamed.  
He fell to the ground, and for some reason his mouth hit the ground first. He scrambled up and tried to charge at the Skull Kid, but only got about two steps with his strange feeling legs before he crashed into the ground again, his face almost touching a tiny pool of water.  
He froze. Reflected in the pool was the glaring face of a Deku Scrub, a very young Scrub with yellow leaves and the same hat that he always wore. He looked at his hands, planted in the moss, and saw that they were brown, wooden things with little leather gauntlets.  
A shuddering cry went up into the darkness as Link saw he had been transformed into what he once knew as his enemy.  
The Skull Kid laughed again, the sound growing distant as the once-Hylian settled into a profound stillness, head drooping.  
A fairy squeaked, but Link paid no attention to it.  
This is what happened. The Skull Kid had left the cavern-like pit they were in through a round door leading to a tunnel. The white fairy had spent so much time laughing at Link that she found herself locked in. Beating on the door with her tiny hands, and finally her whole body, she couldn't open it.  
"Let me out! Skull Kid, come back!" she cried. Then she looked around, zoomed over to the motionless Scrub, and bonked him in the head.  
"Hey, you! Help me get out of here!"  
Link didn't answer. She hit him in the head again. "What, are you stupid? I asked you to help me!"  
The Deku's head raised, and the fairy hopped backwards quickly at the sight of his eyes. They were barely glowing, but in the very depths there was a smouldering flame. His voice was a squeaky Deku's trill.  
"I have lost my true love, my horse, and my form. My fairy is in the clutches of your pal. Why should I help you? Why should I do anything again?"  
"Pleeeeease? C'mon, a sweet helpless little girl is asking you! And my brother… I don't know how he'll survive without me!" The fairy made herself calm down. "I'll be really good! I'll help you find the Skull Kid and I'll make him give your Ocarina back, and your fairy. We can find your horse again, too! I don't think he killed it. Please please please help me? Please?"  
Link stood, walked forward slowly on his stubby little legs, and pushed the wooden slab to one side. "There you are. Now go and leave me alone."  
"No! You gotta come to! We have to get your stuff back, and your horse and your fairy! I didn't want her shut up, but if we hadn't she would have messed up our joke. It was only a joke, okay?"  
Link glared at her.  
"Geez, talk about no sense of humour," the fairy grumbled as she fluttered on ahead down the tunnel. "Well? Are you coming? All these things are fixable! Don't be a wimp!"  
Link was standing motionless. "Have I lost my sense of humour?" he whispered. The day's events hit him hard at that moment, and a flood of tears attacked him. He didn't dare let them out; the fairy was no friend of his, and while he didn't care what she thought of him now, he wasn't giving her fresh resources for abuse.  
The fairy came back and hovered in front of his face. "Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'll tell you my name. It's Tatl! Now can we go?"  
Link shook himself and felt his wooden head rattle. He trotted off obediently behind the little cream-coloured fairy.  
She led him to a place that was a deep chasm with small pillars of land dotted throughout it. They were much too far for him to jump. Huge pink flowers bloomed on them.  
"Now! Time for you to learn about being a Deku. You can burrow into these flowers, and then they can spit you out where ever you want to go!"  
"I don't understand you," Link said.  
"I don't know how, but you climb in, and then you wait, and then when you hear a little pop you go shooting out and you can fly in whatever direction you like. All the Dekus I've seen have flowers like propellers in their hands, so maybe that happens while you're in the flower."  
Link stepped into the centre of the pink flower and felt himself fall downwards. A few moments later, he did hear a poof sound, and kicked down with his feet.  
He burst into the air, hovered for a few moments, and then dropped the two pink flowers he found himself holding. He fell and bounced on the bottom of the flower.  
Having figured out how to manage it, he headed towards the little ledges that were arrayed in a tempting path towards another dark opening. Sometimes it was very close between survival and a long dark fall.  
On the other side, there was a little tree… so very Deku-like, Link almost thought he had found a strange mirror. It looked so sad…  
Passing through a long, green hallway that positively tingled with magic, Link found himself in a dusty dark room. Rushing water churned nearby, and something was thudding rhythmically.  
Faced with a narrow ramp up to somewhere with a little more light, Link took it.  
"Bless me! You must be that Kokiri girl – turned into a Deku Scrub!"  
"Eh?" Link came snout-to-knee with a beaming red-haired man. An enormous pack on his back was stuffed with masks of all kinds. "No. I'm not. I'm a boy."  
"You must be a Kokiri boy, then – cursed – you have the right clothes."  
"I am. Do you know how to lift the curse?"  
"Perhaps, perhaps…"  
"And how do you know of Kokiri?" demanded Tatl. "This is Termina. A Hyrulian couldn't have gotten through."  
"Don't underestimate my abilities, young lady," chided the mask-seller. "I am the Happy Mask Salesman. Right now, I'm on a collecting journey… but I'm afraid a valuable mask was stolen from me. This mask was carved thousands of years ago by a primitive tribe that dabbled in darkness. It was soaked in evil magic, and its wicked influence, I'm afraid, corrupts most people. Thankfully I took great precautions when I embarked upon my search for it. Now an imp has it, and is plaguing the land. I wish to get it back before it causes further trouble." He sat down to see eye to eye with Link. "I'll make you a deal. Do you have an instrument of music?"  
"I did, but it was stolen," Link said bitterly. "By a Skull Kid with a magical mask… is that the one that was stolen from you?"  
"It is. If you get me that mask, I'll see what I can do about your curse."  
"I will do that." Link turned to find the doorway, then turned back. "…Thank you."  
"Don't mention it, lad. I am the Happy Mask Salesman, after all – my job is to spread happiness."  
Link pushed open the heavy door and was dazzled by sunshine from his left, though it was only a little while past dawn. The sound of carpentry drowned the sound of water from whatever contraption lurked behind in the darkness. People scurried about a brightly paved market, or village square, apparently preparing for a celebration.  
A bell sounded over his head six times. Turning, he saw an enormous clock above him.  
"This is Clock Town," Tatl declaimed. "It's the capital of Termina. They're all getting ready for the Harvest Festival. It's on the Equinox."  
"I see. How should I proceed…"  
"There's a Great Fairy in the north part of town. You could ask her."  
"All right."  
Link checked the sun and headed north. North Clock Town was a playground for children, and a gently sloping path led up to a cave to the northwest. Tatl led him towards it.  
Inside, there was a fairy fountain… but it was a fairy fountain that was normally full of little healing fairies, not the great variety. But there were no healing fairies, but a bizarre little set of cherubic creatures, with fluttering ears on the top of their heads.  
"Help!" they squeaked at intervals.  
"Oops," said Tatl. "That's supposed to be the Great Fairy, but I think she's been split up…"  
"And would this have anything to do with that Skull Kid of yours?" Link snapped, trotting on his stubby legs out of the cave. "I suppose I have to find the missing pieces, right?"  
He spent hours searching for the little bobbing things that were portions of the Great Fairy. In the process he came to know the town rather well.  
At last he found one and took it back to the rest.  
The creatures spiralled into a tornado and there was a bright flash of light. The Great Fairies' familiar laugh echoed through the cavern as one smiled down on the little Scrub.  
"Thank you, kind young ones, for restoring me to my proper form. Is there anything I can do for you?"  
"Can you help me get back to my original form or defeat a rampaging Skull Kid with an evil mask?" Link asked.  
The Fairy pondered. "I can teach you to blow magic bubbles as a Deku Scrub… No, really, it's useful. They use it to attack monsters. As for your original form, I cannot. That requires divine magic to counter the dark magic. I am not strong enough, and my sisters have been similarly shattered… I am not strong enough to attack the Skull Kid either: we tried that already, and that is why we have broken. It is up to you, Hero of Time, to save this world, isn't it?"  
"But what can I do like this?!" Link cried, ignoring Tatl's gasp and look of awe.  
"Go find out where the Skull Kid is first, that's what I would do," the Great Fairy replied calmly. "You may return here if you are weary. Anything else?"  
"Can you recommend a good restaurant? I'm hungry."  
The Fairy laughed. Link twitched. "You could try the Milk Bar, or even the Stock Pot Inn. Or, you can buy produce at the market! Bye now!" She vanished.  
Link left the cave and looked around. There was a boy blowing darts at a balloon, but his aim was off. There was a strange little man dressed in green, with a beard, hovering in the air with another balloon.  
Link went to the east and found the Milk Bar closed; he went to the inn and found the food terribly bland. Shoving it into his snout felt weird. At least he was full. He went and bought an apple anyway.  
He went to West Clock Town. He now had a purpose, but he didn't know how to start. Going up to random people would do no good.  
"Hey! Deku-kid!" said a little boy's voice. Link turned around and saw a small boy with a ball-cap on. "You look like you need help. Do you want my help?"  
"Who are you?" Link asked. Tatl repeated it. In fact, she kept interjecting annoyingly throughout the whole conversation, making Link long for the tactfulness of Navi.  
The boy puffed up indignantly. "What? You haven't heard of the Bombers?"  
"Sounds dangerous."  
"We are the Bomber Secret Society of Justice, devoted to helping people 24/7! Now tell me your problem."  
"I'm looking for a Skull Kid with a freaky mask."  
"Say no more!" yelled the little boy. "We know all about him. We're keeping tabs on him. He's on top of the clock tower right now. Let me go ask Jim."  
Link had a hard time keeping up with the boy. He went back to North Clock Town, where he went up to the boy attacking the balloon, who had a red cap, and whispered.  
"Go ask Jack, John," the other boy said.  
"Right!" The boys ran to West Clock Town, where there was another small boy, this one with a yellow cap.  
"Skull Kid? Well, Joe just went to check on him before breakfast, and he said he was still there."  
"Thanks, Jack." The boy turned to Link. "Well, now what are you going to do? You can't get up there for another three days, until the night of the Festival."  
"Three days? Oh, gosh…" Link said, deflating. "Can I join you Bombers? That way I'll at least be doing something useful."  
"WHAT!?" yelled Tatl. "You're gonna join these wierdos?"  
"If you don't like it, you can go away," Link said.  
"Sure, you can join!" said John. "All you have to do is pass the test. Let's go ask Jim and get the others. What's your name?"  
"Yeah, what's your name, strong silent type?" Tatl interrupted.  
"Link."  
"Too bad it doesn't begin with a J. Anyway, let's go."  
The complete Bombers' gang, with the exception of Jack, who had to guard whatever he was guarding, lined up in North Clock Town.  
"Right!" said Jim. "You have to find all five of us – John, Joe, Jake, Jed, and me – before sunrise tomorrow. You have to give us ten minutes' head start, okay? Good luck – most people can't manage it!"  
"You're crazy!" yelled Tatl.  
"All right. I'll wait in here," Link said, going into the mouth of the Great Fairy's cave and closing his eyes.  
Ten minutes later, he began looking. They hid themselves well, but they hadn't told him that he had to catch them as well as find them. His sharp eyes soon caught their brightly coloured caps in the worst press of travelling performers, but his short legs hampered him. Tatl refused to help him, but he didn't mind.  
Still, he managed it eventually.  
"Darn!" cried Jim when Link finally tagged him. "I was caught! Anyway, welcome to the Bombers' Secret Society of Justice. Here's your official notebook."  
"You guys are organized," Link commented.  
"Us guys, now. You're one of us."  
"Yes. I forgot." Link opened the book. It had spaces labelled 'Name', 'Problem', 'Status'. He managed to fit it in the pocket of his Deku shorts.  
"So, I've never met a Deku my own age before. What's your home like? What are you doing here?"  
"I'm not actually a Deku," Link told him. "I'm a Hylian from Hyrule."  
"What's a Hylian compared to a Terminian? What's Hyrule?"  
"Um… Hyrule is a country. I'm not sure how I got here or how far away it is… I think it's a few day's journey."  
"Oh, no, it isn't," Tatl said. "It's days and days and days by land. It's huge. By the magic fairy tunnel, it's only a week."  
"All right, then. A Hylian is what we call one descended from the Knights of Hyrule."  
"So why are you a Deku, Link-man?"  
"I was cursed by that Skull Kid. That's why I want to find him – so I can make him take it off. He stole some stuff from me, too – including my fairy partner."  
"Yeah! He caused no end of trouble when he wanted to join up. He didn't want to help people! He's mean! Isn't that your fairy partner?"  
"No. This is Tatl. She is… helping me for the time being. She is sorry the Skull Kid attacked me."  
"But he's still a knucklehead!" Tatl called from where Link couldn't swat her. "He's a noble nutcase!"  
"My fairy partner is Navi. She's a lot nicer and more polite."  
"Hey!"  
Jim gurgled happily. "You two are funny. I think you really like each other."  
"That remains to be seen," Link said evenly.  
"How old are you?"  
"Thirteen."  
"Holy cuckoo! We're all seven and eight, except for Joe, who's six. You're really old, aren't you?"  
"I suppose," Link replied.  
Jim invited him over for meals, solving his food problem. He talked to the Bombers all day, and some of the festival performers.  
After sunset he curled up in North Clock Town and slept.  
At around midnight, he was woken from a restless sleep when he heard a weak cry.  
"Help…"  
"What?" Link cried, running forward. He saw a tall, bald man bending over a small elderly woman. "Hey!"  
The man ran off with a sack full of stuff. Link took off after him. He managed to intercept him on the way to the gate and hit him with a wind attack: the attack was what came out when he tried to do his spin attack as a Deku. The man dropped the sack, yowling in pain, and ran through the gate out of the town, although the guard there tried to stop him also. Link blew Deku bubbles at him until he could see him no longer. Then he picked up the sack and returned to the old woman.  
"Thank you, child. I must thank you somehow, with something…" She stood up. "I know! Come to the bomb shop tomorrow. I will have something for you."  
"Thank you, ma'am," Link said, bobbing his big Deku head as she trundled away.  
Jed came forward from the darkness of the South Clock Town gate. "Nicely handled, Link-man."  
"Who was the thief?" Tatl demanded.  
"That's Sakon. He's greedy nut. We watch him closely."  
"And people say the Skull Kid's bad! Other people are bad!"  
"Tatl, the Skull Kid has far more power at his disposal. Also, don't forget that that power comes from the mask, and also that the mask has evil influence."  
"That would make sense. He wasn't so mean before. He just wanted people to stop shoving him out. He didn't want to hurt them." She pointed upwards – somehow Link knew, although her pale glow completely hid her little shape.  
"He did that?" Link gasped. The moon was as big as the biggest Goron back at home, and it seemed to be getting larger, but Link would have thought it was just how this country, Termina, worked.  
As he looked, he fancied he saw large, yellowish-red eyes that made him think of Ganondorf, which made him feel sick, and large craters and mountains that looked like eyes and a mouth. Then he saw that it was no trick of his imagination, and felt very sick. Images blurred in his mind – fighting with Ganondorf, Ganon, the ring of fire…  
He turned away.  
"Yep," Tatl said grimly. "He did that. It's normally the same size it is in Hyrule, and it definitely doesn't have that freaky face. That was one of his jokes, to creep everyone out. I'd say it worked with you."  
"It's only a memory," Link answered, walking away to find a place to sleep.  
The next day he visited the bomb shop and got a discount for Goron mega-bombs. He kept it for later – as a Scrub, he couldn't even handle ordinary bombs anymore.  
It rained that day, so Link kept under shelter, keeping his wooden body dry, and chatting with – or listening to – the fairy-wannabe, Tingle. Tingle was the short little man dressed in green, floating in the air. Link popped his balloon with a well-placed bubble, gaining Jim's admiration. Tingle wanted to have a fairy partner, even to be a fairy himself, but he was thirty-five years old already and had to support himself by drawing maps. Link found him a ridiculous character, but it lightened his mood and his mind to hear the man's ideas about fairies.  
The third day, the moon was looming so close that it blotted out half the sky. Link paced up and down in front of the clock tower, waiting for it to open. John, the tallest of the Bombers, waited with him. John would give him a leg up to where the door into the top of the tower stood. The ground shook periodically. There was a febrile rush of activity all day. Jack reported the Skull Kid still waiting on top of the tower.  
As ten o'clock struck, fireworks burst over the town. The tower changed dramatically. The whole top rose several meters, and a counterweight swung down, putting the clock face on the top of the tower. The door dropped, and another behind it, and another until there was a set of stairs leading to a trapdoor into the clock face.  
John boosted Link-the-Deku Scrub onto the platform before the door.  
"Good luck!" he said. "I hope you get him good!"  
Tatl stuck her tongue out at the Bomber.  
Link hurried up the steps and pushed open the trap door.  
The Skull Kid hovered in the air. When he saw Link, he giggled.  
"Look who's here! It's the dumb guy!"  
"Tael!" cried Tatl. "You're okay! I was worried!"  
"S-sorry, sis…" mumbled the purple fairy. "I have something to tell you." He fluttered forward a little way. "Jungle… mountain… ocean… desert… bring them here."  
"What? You're not making sense!" Tatl scolded.  
The Skull Kid whapped Tael out of the way viciously. "Stupid fairy – talking out of turn!"  
"Tael! No!" Tatl squealed. "You mean Skull Kid! You'll pay for this!"  
The Skull Kid shrugged. "And why should I care? I don't need friends anymore… not when they'll all be sorry for not being nice to me… not when I do… THIS!" He flung his arms out and shrieked, a thin, piercing cry that sent purple waves up to the descending moon. The descent hastened.  
"Oh, no!" Tatl cried.  
Tael stirred from where he had falled to the floor. "Jungle… mountain… ocean… … desert… hurry…"  
"Okay, okay, we're hurrying! Link, quick! Do something!"  
Link was trying to communicate with Navi, but he couldn't hear her frantic cries over the sound of the screaming. He blew a bubble in an attempt to knock her loose, and he hit the Skull Kid square on the bottom. The grotesque creature flinched, and his noise faltered for the barest of moments before beginning again with renewed force.  
Navi did not fall, but something else did…  
"The Ocarina!" Link shouted at the top of his squeaky voice, rushing to get it. He picked it up, and put it to his wooden lips, wondering what he should play, or, more importantly, how he should play it. He was startled when the blue instrument disappeared and he found himself holding a massive set of wooden organ pipes.  
Finally he heard Navi. "Play the Song of Time!"  
"Take us back to the first day I came here?"  
"Yes! Hurry!"  
Link, after a few false starts, managed to drone out the magical melody on the strange bagpipe-like instrument he held. Focusing all his thoughts on the day they had arrived, he was gratified when white washed over them and disappeared. He felt as though he was falling, and then found himself standing outside the lower door of the clock tower.  
"Wha-wha-what?" Tatl squawked. "What just happened?"  
"I put us back in time three days, the day I arrived here."  
"Go see that guy and see if he'll change you back!"  
Link turned and bobbled his way through the big wooden door.  
The Happy Mask Salesman was there. "You turned back time, didn't you? I'm one of the few who know. Most people won't be affected, you know. I will change you back now."  
He pulled out a large pipe organ and played a soothing melody, with strange harmony. "This is the Song of Healing."  
"The first six notes are Saria's song backwards," Link said, and then caught his breath. Something was pulling at his face. His limbs were pulling out… His whole body felt like it was uncramping.  
Something fell to the floor with a rattle. Link took a deep breath and stretched. He was Hylian-shaped again.  
He stooped and picked up the thing that had fallen. It was a mask shaped like a Deku's face.  
"You can put that on any time and turn back into a Deku, and when you are done, you can take it off. Don't look at me like that; it could come in handy. Now… do you have my mask for me?"  
"Eh?" Link realized that only half his mission was complete… the easy half.  
The Mask Salesman turned demonic. Lunging forward, he grabbed Link by the collar and shook him. "That mask is dangerous! You must get it! Get it soon!"  
Link wrenched himself free. "I will! It is difficult! Leave me alone!" He tore off out the door. The Happy Mask Salesman didn't follow him.  
Link leaned against the side of a building and sighed. He did a quick mental recap and shared it with Tatl.  
"We still have to stop the moon from crashing."  
"Yup."  
"To do this, we need to go to the jungle, the mountains, the ocean, and the desert."  
"Yeah. I'll tell you what I think we need to do there in a minute."  
"Then we can confront the Skull Kid again."  
"Yeah!"  
"And then we can rescue Navi and Tael."  
"Yeah!"  
"And somewhere in here, we need to find my horse." He gave her a hard stare. She giggled nervously.  
"And I need food." He gave her another hard stare.  
"Eheheh. Yeah."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Link headed for the market and bought some fruit; enough for two or three days' breakfast. He gave most of it to Tatl to carry. She protested until he reminded her that her magical carrying capacity was far greater and less inconvenient than his.  
"We should go to the swamp first," she said after that.  
"Why?"  
"It's the first one Tael said. You see, there's a legend that says that there are four protector giants. We need to get their attention, and one of them lives at each of the cardinal points, so we need to go in those directions! I guessed that was what Tael meant."  
"I suppose I understand."  
"You're just a kid, but you have a sword, and you look competent, so I'll let you through," said the guard at the gate. "Be careful, now!"  
"Hm," grunted Link, jogging through.

He headed south for the line of trees at the edge of the circular Field of Termina.  
As they passed a huge old dead tree, Tatl veered aside to look at it. There was a rough drawing of a Skull Kid and two fairies.  
"He was lonely when we found him," she said. "He just wanted to play, but everyone was afraid of his strange face, even the Deku people, who look kinda similar if you ask me. He was cold. So were we. We knew we weren't supposed to talk to strangers, but we felt sorry for him."  
"We got to be good friends. We had lots of fun playing in the long grass. That's when we made this picture."  
Tatl shut up and wouldn't say any more.  
"I know something like that," Link said quietly.  
They carried on south.  
They came to a swamp, but the water looked bad, and smelt bad… more than bad, poisonous.  
"Um, this would be not normal," Tatl said. "It shouldn't be acidic."  
"I'm going over there," Link said, pointing to a small dock on the other side of the water.  
"Change into a Deku first."  
"Why?"  
"Because they can bounce on water."  
"Ugh." Link put the mask on and felt the same crushing feeling again. When he was done, he headed for the dock, using the giant lily pads along the way to help him.  
He saw a giant octo, and reached behind him automatically. Nothing. He transformed back and tried again.  
"Drat."  
"What?"  
"I didn't even check, but that Skull Kid also has my slingshot, my boomerang, and all my supplies. That was one of my bottles Navi was in. Drat."  
"Throw rocks at it!"  
"All right, I'll try it. -How are we going to find rocks in a swamp?"  
"I'll get you something."  
Link stood on a lily pad and tried blowing bubbles at the thing. They popped, leaving a slight film on the octo's skin.  
Tatl came back with some Deku sticks. "This was all I could find."  
"They'll do." Link, Hylian form, hurled them like javelins. They punctured the octo, and it wheezed and sank to the bottom of the river.  
Link passed by it, skipping on the water as a Deku, and followed the lily pads.  
He found himself in front of a wooden palace brightly painted in stripes. A monkey came out of the bushes and grabbed his hand, dragging him gently, but firmly, into the cover.  
"You're a stranger around here, right?" he chirped.  
"I am."  
"I'm Nikku. I need your help. You see, the Deku Princess has been kidnapped, and they think my brother did it. They've got him in there, and they're going to kill him!"  
"Right. I'll stop it."  
"We need to work as a team, Mr. Deku. I'll tell you where to go. You can get to the back of the cage, but I can't get there myself. Too many guards. But you can go by ways and not be seen. I've spied them out."  
Nikku took Link to the side of the castle and showed him a magic bean plant.  
"I've carefully tended this in case anyone showed up. You go up, and then straight, fly across the gaps with the Deku flowers, and then right, and then eventually another right. It's not too hard. They've tied him to a pole, I hear, so the back door should be unlocked. Good luck!"  
Link headed in. No one paid any attention to him, except for some guards who sat in other Deku flowers. Perhaps they weren't guards, but feral Deku who had taken up residence in those flowers. They made him think of the Deku back home, whereas the others didn't. The wild ones stared at him. If he got too close, they snorted a Deku nut at him. One hit another guard on the head and knocked him out. By the time that the scrambling and shouting started, Link was already inside. Tatl was a silent as a mouse throughout the whole thing.  
They arrived at the back of the bamboo cage, and Link found the door. It was tied shut, more strongly than he could undo, so he transformed back to normal and cut it with his Kokiri sword. 'Lucky the Skull Kid didn't grab that,' he thought.  
"Hey. Are you Nikku's brother? We've come to get you out," Tatl said very quietly.  
"No! There's something more important to do! We need to rescue the Deku Princess!"  
"All right, but be quieter. No one knows I'm here except your brother, and he's counting on me to get you out." Link could be very intense, and the monkey felt his intensity and fell silent. Link cut him free from the pole.  
"Please listen," the monkey said once they were out of the cage. "I need to teach you the song to open the Woodfall Temple. It's been sealed."  
"First…" Link transformed into a Deku. "You can tell me later. I won't rest easy until you're out of here. Climb on my back. I think I can manage it."  
"This is the song," the monkey insisted, and hummed it very softly.  
"I know that!" Tatl said. "I must have heard you last week or whenever!"  
"Then teach it to your stubborn partner," the monkey said as Link popped into the flower.  
He launched and fell. The monkey was too heavy for the little Deku body he was using. The guards quickly surrounded them.  
Link untransformed, eliciting gasps from everyone, grabbed the monkey, and ran.  
He almost made it to the gate, but then the guards dog-piled them both.  
Link struggled free, being bigger and stronger than most of the guards as a Hylian, but the monkey was invisible. Link tried to get to him, but the guards were too thickly packed, and he didn't want to hurt them with his sword.  
He gave up and ran around to the bean plant.  
"Who are you? Oh, you're the Deku that I asked for help? What happened? Did you get caught?" Nikku asked. "Don't worry about it. No! Don't try again now! Plan B. You need to get to the princess. I'll show you the way there. When we get the princess, she'll listen to you and talk the king out of it. Come on!"  
He led Link back through the swamp until they came to a giant waterfall.  
"We have to climb this cliff," he said.  
Link set to, and reached a ledge with a tunnel very soon. They were about on a level with the top of the fall.  
"Here you go through and then there is a series of platforms to a big wooden structure. Do you have the Song of Soaring?"  
"No, but I see something written on that block of jet. It says Song of Soaring," Tatl said.  
"Lucky we're in the right place. I use it to get to the platform. You better learn the song and join me."  
Link looked at the song. It looked like the Song of Storms, but different. He played it on his Ocarina. Nothing happened.  
"Let's go in!" Tatl said. They went through the tunnel, and Link used the platforms in Deku form until he saw the structure. There was one more flower to get there, or the song, so he used the flower.  
"Now, do you have Deku pipes?" chirped Nikku.  
Link showed them to him.  
"Just play the song to open the Temple, would you? I can't make a big enough noise."  
Tatl sang it again for Link, though she was very high-pitched, and Link played it on his pipes.  
The centre of the lake began to bulge up and swell. The ground rumbled: the platform shook.  
The trees in the centre of the lake rose on top of a tall mound of earth. Water cascaded off its sides.  
Link dropped into a Deku flower and flew towards the island.  
Two hours later, he faced off against the demon of the temple: a tribal warrior giant who kept chanting something that sounded to Link like "You wanna fight?"  
"You want to fight?" Link shouted back at it. "We can fight." He raised the bow he had found – perfectly sized for his thirteen-year old height – and fired an arrow. The warrior blocked it with his kite shaped shield.  
After a short but fierce battle, the warrior, with his annoying chant, collapsed and burnt in green flames. The mask he had worn was unharmed. Link picked it up, and whiteness swallowed his vision.  
It appeared he was standing on the top of a high pillar surrounded by waterfalls. It felt like the Temple of Light, but it was all light instead of all dark. Clouds and bubbles surrounded him.  
A tall, bipedal figure materialized out of the mists ahead of him.  
"Hey! You're one of the four giants, aren't you?"  
A slow sad sound, as of singing, came back to Tatl's call.  
"He says that he is, and that he was imprisoned in that mask. He… thanks you for setting him free? He's hard to understand. Um… Hey, slow down! Can you help us with the Skull Kid?" Tatl listened. "He says we need to free the other three. Um… Oh! This is a song he wants to teach us. Listen carefully, 'cause I don't want to have to remember it all by myself!"  
Link heard the melody sung slowly by the giant and played it on his Ocarina.  
Tatl leaned forward again. "He says… 'Call us.' Okay, I guess that means when we've got them all sorted out, we can call them with the song and they'll help us with the Skull Kid."  
"Thank you!" Link called to the giant. His vision swirled again, and he found himself in a cave.  
There was rustling going on behind a curtain. Link pushed it aside, and found himself face-to-snout with a Deku girl with an elaborate hairdo in many-coloured flowers.  
"You must be the Deku princess," Link said.  
"Yes, I am. Who are you?"  
"I've been sent to rescue you by the monkeys. Your father thinks they kidnapped you."  
The girl began to quiver with anger. "Oh, foolish father! How stupid can you get!" She turned to Link. "Quick! Take me home. I'll settle him."  
"Who kidnapped you anyway?" Tatl asked, as Link headed out of the cave and found himself facing the tunnel to the waterfall. He noticed that the water was a pure blue colour, and guessed that since the demon was dead, the water was normal. That much was obvious.  
"A big warrior, Ondoluwa, a monster of legend. I don't know why he's alive, he's supposed to be dead thousands of years ago! A Deku hero killed him."  
"Now we're going down a cliff," Link said. "I need to change." He put the mask on. The girl stared at him.  
"You're someone special, aren't you? You look just like the butler's son now. But you can't be."  
"Really?"  
"Hey! Maybe that tree we saw was the butler's son! After we get the mask away from the Skull Kid, we can make him a Deku again," Tatl squeaked.  
"Hm." Link hopped over the lily pads. The princess hesitated just for an instant – Link heard her mumble something about 'undignified, but I must get home somehow' – and followed.  
She burst into the palace, flowers bristling, and marched up to her father, who started to burble with joy, but…  
Bounce! The princess knocked him flat, jumping onto his protruding stomach. "F-f-foolish father! What have you done to the monkey! Let him go this instant!"  
The monkey was brought out, but Link was set upon by other guards. "Your majesty, this is the Terminian who tried to rescue the monkey!"  
The princess raged at them too. "Idiots! He was only trying to help the monkey because my father is a blockhead! He's the one who rescued me!"  
They trembled in their leaves. Finally, the princess got off the Deku King and came down to where Link and the monkey, Kikki, stood.  
"I am terribly sorry, Kikki. My father gets these crazy ideas sometimes. You are officially pardoned, as you never did anything wrong in the first place, and you were only thinking of me."  
"Don't mention it, Princess," replied the monkey, waving a cheerful paw. "Nothing bad happened, thanks to Mr. Link here."  
"Yes, many thanks to Mr. Link," repeated the princess. "You killed the demon of the temple. I hope you can stop the Skull Kid who is responsible for all this."  
"I am going to try," Link replied.  
Soon after, he left. He went back to Clock Town and fell asleep.  
"Now what?" Tatl asked the next morning. "Let's hit the mountains, all right!"  
"Fine," Link said, crawling out of the corner he had fallen asleep in, sword in hand – he was feeling a bit vulnerable with a demonic Skull Kid around, and had used his shield for a blanket.  
He headed out of the east gate and climbed down a cliff, heading toward the white-peaked mountains. Snow still lay on the ground near the side of the town close to the mountains, although it was far below the snowline in the rest of the country.  
He trudged steadily up a narrow path, dodging the occasional loose icicle or snowball thrown by some kind of snow monster. An ice slide blocked his path, but fortunately for him he had not lost his power of element arrows: he could still blast the cliffs of ice with fire.  
He made it to some kind of Goron village, an outdoor Goron village. He wandered around, venturing cautiously into one building, but retreating hastily as the deafening wailing of a baby assaulted his ears. Then he went in again and asked a Goron why the baby was crying so loudly.  
"Oh!" shouted the Goron. Link winced and gestured outside. "The elder hasn't come back yet, so his son is upset, and also Darmani, our great hero, hasn't come back yet either. Darmi can usually play the kid to sleep. Hey, would you go look for those two? We've got our hands full."  
"I can do that," Link said.  
"Why?" Tatl asked. "Why do you have to go and jump into every little problem that comes your way? Are you stupid?"  
"I do it because I can fix it," Link answered succinctly. "I can look for the Temple on the way. Come on."  
"You're crazy," Tatl said, shaking her head and following him into the hills around the valley.  
It took him the next day to find the elder, frozen into a giant snowball. He was anxious about the hero Darmani, and about his son, but being half-frozen he could only travel slowly. "Please go sooth my son," he said. "Oh, you can't use Goron drums, can you?"  
Link shook his head.  
"Well then, just help me home." Link accompanied him through the cold, wet night and to the Goron hall.  
The next day he wander around a bit more, trying to find the Darmani person. He did find, up a tall cliff, a tomb with his name on it, which confused him, but two Gorons were frozen outside. No one else seemed to know of Darmani's death, and Link wondered if he could stop it if he went back in time. Unfreezing the Gorons, he asked them about it.  
"Oh, yes, Darmi died several days ago. He went to fight the monster in the Snowhead Temple, but he never came back so we got this tomb ready for him."  
"So he might not be dead?"  
"He said he would come back in at least two days, and that was four days ago. Darmi never breaks a promise."  
"Hm."  
Link felt he could do no more: he was running out of time. He played the Song of Time.  
He went straight to the mountains from the door of the clock tower, using the Song of Soaring, and found that the elder had been frozen into a snowball again, and the baby was still crying.  
While taking the elder home this time, Link saw something dark in the snow; something mysterious that he could not identify. He ran forward a little and picked it up.  
It was the Lens of Truth. One of the three spiky points had been broken off. Link stared at it, shocked. How could a magical object be broken?  
He saw the missing point and picked it up.  
He supposed it was not so impossible. Plenty of things he had once thought invincible had been destroyed.  
"Hey, what's that?" Tatl asked. "I can fix that. Give it here."  
"No," Link said, cradling it to him. "The Skull Kid stole it."  
"And you think that I'm gonna steal it too? Seriously, you are dumb. I said I can fix it. I'm trying to help you here!"  
Link gave it to her after another moment's hesitation. Light flashed and the Lens dropped into his hand, whole.  
"…Thank you," Link said quietly.  
"… Do you know, that's the first time you've ever said thank you to me?" Tatl said back to him.  
"I'm sorry. I was angry."  
"Okay. That's reasonable. Thanks for not being mad at me any more."  
"…You're welcome."  
"Can you see anything?" Link asked a while later, as he gave the Lens back to the fairy. She flew up in the air.  
"Nope! Nothing out of the ordinary."  
"Keep an eye out for invisible things. I'll go and talk to people in the village again and see if they know anything else."  
After they helped the elder home to the hall, Tatl squeaked and zipped behind Link's head, apparently hiding from something.  
"G-g-g-ghost!" she cried. "A big strong Goron with a massive gash on his belly! And he's looking RIGHT AT US!"  
"Calm down," Link said. "Where? Can I have that?"  
Link looked through the Lens and walked towards the translucent grey Goron.  
"Gah!"  
Tatl had ducked down the back of Link's tunic, making him cold. He jerked, but kept walking.  
"Hey, can I talk to you?"  
"Eh? You can see me?"  
"Yes. Are you Darmani, or someone else?"  
"I am Darmani. You have heard of me, then?"  
"A bit. My name is Link. May we help you defeat the Snowhead Temple?"  
"No." The ghost of Darmani sagged. "I was… defeated myself. Now I can do no more in this world. Snow came upon us suddenly, which should not be here-"  
"No kidding," Tatl interrupted. "My name's Tatl, by the way."  
"-but the demon inside Snowhead is too strong for me. And only a Goron can do it." The ghost 'sat down' on the snow. "I am weary, but I cannot rest. I wish to aid you, but I have no way of doing it."  
"I might be able to help," Link said softly, raising the Ocarina to his lips. He played the Song of Healing.  
Darmani's transparent face showed an epiphany. He looked peacefully happy, as if greeting his fellow Gorons and accepting their emotions for him. "Brothers," he rumbled. Then his eyes cleared, and he looked at Link again.  
"Friend, you have given me strength to do something. Please defeat Goht and restore Goron Valley."  
"I will…" Link replied as the ghost shrank and condensed into something small and hard and dark on the snow.  
He picked it up. It was a round mask shaped like the smiling face of a Goron. He put it on, and felt magic take hold of him. It swelled his arms, inflating them painfully with muscle and tough skin. His body frame changed completely. He yelled again.  
When it was over, he was a massive, powerful Goron. He took out the Ocarina and was not surprised when he found himself holding a set of five differently-sized drums.  
"Where's this Temple?" he asked Tatl.  
"It's up the mountain. I'll show you the way to go. You'll need to stay a Goron, and roll – there are chasms that you can sorta catapult across. You'll see. Just go at full speed and follow me!"  
"Whoa! Whoa!" Link found 'full speed' a rather tall order when he was having trouble just rolling forward. Eventually he got it and followed the fairy.  
They arrived at a narrow trail, a bridge, through a deep valley. On the floor of the valley a huge Goron, as big as the largest in Hyrule, was snoring thunderously. Giant snowballs were crashing down the spiked pinnacle that the path led to. Link dodged them carefully.  
He transformed back into a Hylian to climb the spiralling path to the cave entrance, the entrance to the dungeon.  
A day later, and several hours of sleep in a safe spot, Link stood in the cave of the boss, Goht. It was a large, mechanical monster with four legs and horns. It was frozen in a block of ice.  
"This rather looks defeated to me," Link said to Tatl.  
"No, you need to blow it up! Duh!"  
Link shot a fire arrow and melted the ice. He sighed and dove out of the way as the behemoth tried to trample him. He turned to a Goron and followed after, going so fast he sprouted metal spikes from his body. The spikes tore at the metal of the monsters legs, while Link dodged falling stalactites.  
Finally the robot lost control and galloped into the wall, blowing up. All except for the mask was destroyed, and Link picked it up and found himself warped to the exit of the Temple.  
That part of the world at Snowhead Temple didn't look too different, but when he got to the village, the change was dramatic. The ground was free of snow, and the place where he had found the elder was a lake with small islands dotted throughout it. Link felt peaceful in the blooming meadows he found there, and then he remembered something.  
"I'm going back to town." He warped to the clock tower with the Song of Soaring, and went to the bomb shop.  
"Hello. I'd like to use this now," he said, showing the Goron bomb voucher to the elderly lady, while he was in Goron form. She gestured to a stack of large barrels. Link took one and carried it out, not without difficulty.  
At last Tatl said: "This is ridiculous. Gimme that thing." She put it away.  
Link wandered and wandered, poking into all the corners he could reach around the swamp, mountains, and Termina Field. He found a racetrack that some Gorons had to blast open with their mega-bomb, and he saw the baby Goron.  
"Darmi!" the baby squawked, toddling up to him. "Are you going to race today?"  
"I don't know. I wasn't planning on it." Link knew he looked slightly different than Darmani, but he let the child have his mistake. His bass Goron voice bothered him somewhat; it resonated through his torso and set his bones vibrating.  
"But Darmi! You always race! You're the greatest!" Tears began to trickle down his cheeks.  
Link knelt beside the child. "Sometimes I get tired. I like racing –" which was true, now "- but sometimes I don't feel like it, right? Don't you sometimes find you don't want to do something you love to do?" He felt oddly parental, but reminded himself he was trying to gently keep the baby from becoming a spoiled brat.  
"T-that's true," the Goron said. "But I want you to race! Please, Darmi?"  
"I will race today," Link said, bringing smiles to the baby's face. "But you mustn't be disappointed if I find I can't come next time."  
"Why can't you come?"  
"I might be busy saving the world somewhere. Right?"  
"Ooh! That's so cool! You do that!"  
Link went to talk to the elder, explaining that Darmani was, technically, dead and that his name was Link. "Please explain it to your son later, when he's older."  
"All right, young one. Go race, now."  
Link found the race difficult, but he wove around the other competitors early and stayed ahead of them to the end.  
They gave him a bottle of gold dust.  
"A new bottle!" Tatl exclaimed. "That'll come in handy!"  
"Yes," Link said, looking at her meaningfully.  
Tatl stared at him, and then giggled. "You wouldn't do that! Hee! You don't not have a sense of humour after all. Sorry 'bout that. Heh. That's funny. We gotta get your fairy back soon."  
"Yes."  
Back on day one, he found a path through the woods to the southwest, a path that was blocked by a large boulder. He blew it up with the special Goron bomb. The fat man who was trying to hack at it with a pickaxe thanked him and walked back to town.  
On the other side of the boulder, the path went on, winding through golden woods. Link saw birds and dragonflies, and flowers. It made him feel happy, and also sad. A lump came into his throat. It was much like home…  
And then he came upon a wide open area, through a wooden gate in a wooden fence, and saw horses and cows and a chicken coop. The lump grew bigger.  
He ventured towards the small group of houses, smaller than Lon Lon Ranch, and saw a small girl and a young woman sitting on the step of the house, talking. But he also saw…  
"Eponaaaa!" he shouted shrilly, wild with delight, and ran forward and vaulted into the enclosure she was in. The two girls looked up sharply. "That's why you couldn't come to me, girl. You couldn't get around the rock." He hugged her neck and stroked her mane. "I'm so glad to have found you."  
"Sorry to cut short your touching reunion, but there's a little girl about to shoot you in the butt," Tatl said. Link turned around and saw a small red-haired girl, the one who had been sitting on the step, clutching a small bow and an arrow.  
"Hi," Link said. "You must be the owner of this ranch."  
The girl nodded solemnly. "You must be the owner of this nice horse. What's her name?"  
"Epona."  
"She's pretty. She just appeared out of nowhere early this morning, and she was freaked out, so we put her in here and fed her."  
"Thank you. Do I owe you anything?"  
"Well, you could do me a favour. What's your name? Mine's Romani. The name of this ranch is Romani. Mom and Dad named it after me, but then they died when I was really little, so my sister Cremia takes care of it now. I'll call you Grasshopper because you wear green, okay? Do you believe in ghosts?"  
"Yes… Uh, my name's Link." She reminded him of Malon when she was young, but Romani was even younger, about eight years old.  
"Right, Grasshopper. Here's the plan. Meet me here at sundown and help me protect the cows!"  
"Um… okay."  
"Thanks, Grasshopper! Come and meet my sister."  
Link spent a good day at Romani Ranch, talking to the sisters. They gave him lunch, and they became good friends. A friendly, though depressed young guy with a Mohawk and facial piercings was in the chicken shed, and after talking to him a while, he gave Link a headband with two bunny ears on top of it.  
"It could come in handy," he said with a sombre wink.  
Link put it on, feeling very silly. Romani giggled. Link took a few steps.  
"Run," said Grog, the chicken man. Link ran.  
He skidded to a stop because he couldn't control his headlong dash. He stopped centimetres from the wooden wall of the enclosure. "Whoa!"  
"Yep, they'll come in handy," Tatl said. "We'll be able to get around sooo fast now! Yeah!"  
"Mm-hmm. Thank you very much," Link said to Grog. "These are great. I don't think I'll bother taking them off again."  
"You look so funny!" Romani giggled.  
"You're just jealous of my superior fashion sense," said Link facetiously, making Romani laugh harder. "Nah, these are embarrassing. But if they help me save the world, I'll wear them. Not that I'm in public, exactly, at this moment…"  
"Yeah! Let's see you in South Clock Town!" Tatl yelled.  
Link's heart jumped in his chest and he turned away.  
"Hey! Whatsa matter?"  
"Sorry. Just… memories."  
"You gotta friend who'd love to be here?"  
"Yes…"  
Link turned again, searching Romani's questioning eyes, and then, spontaneously, smiled broadly. "She'd love to meet you," he said quietly.  
"Wow! You can smile!" Tatl said. Link started. "What?"  
"My friend… once, she could not laugh or smile… and I gave her that back… I have turned into that, haven't I?"  
"Whatever. Come on, bunny-boy." Tatl grabbed a real ear and tugged it toward the door, where Romani was already.  
"Good-bye, Grog!" Link called.  
That night, close to midnight, Romani snuck out of her bed and downstairs to where Link still sat half-dozing by the dying fire – it was cool in the evenings.  
"Let's go, Grasshopper!" she whispered. "We can take them!"  
Outside, she ran to the barn. "I'm usually about right here. They mostly come from the field, but one or two come from behind. They're after the cows."  
"I'll tell you if that happens!" Tatl volunteered. "I'm not gonna let you take all the glory!"  
"Right. I'm ready," said Link, testing his bow.  
It was a few minutes later that they appeared.  
Link and Tatl found that the fairy could not get a target lock on them, so Link used his eyes more than usual. He missed only very rarely, though. Once he had a heart-attack when one snuck up from the side, heading for the barn.  
Romani kept passing him arrows from her stock. She had a lot.  
Tatl screeched. "Link! There's one almost at the barn back here!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Link dashed, using all the speed of his magical new hood to get there in time. Swords wouldn't work – he'd tried it already once, so he carried a notched arrow and fired wildly.  
He barely punctured it.  
The aliens all vanished.  
"What?" Link gasped, breathing heavily.  
"We did it!" Romani yelled happily. "We saved the cows!"  
"It's five in the morning," Tatl said. "I'm tired. Let's crash."  
"Oh, yeah." Romani looked rather chagrined, but not tired at all. Suddenly her eyelids drooped and she fell over.  
Link caught her and carried her calmly into the house and up to her room. Then he went down and fell asleep in front of the fireplace.

The next day he rode Epona on Termina field. They headed to the ocean.  
The Great Sea was a beautiful sight. Link had never seen it before, and gazed with all his might. It smelled fascinating. A seagull called just over his head and he ducked reflexively. Melancholy overtook him again.  
"Hey!" Tatl yelled from over his head, and he looked up. "Look out there, there're seagulls hovering over something! I wonder what it is."  
"We can go see," said Link, nudging Epona onwards.  
When he got to the waterline, he sprang off his horse and dove headlong into the water. His hat came off, but he paid no attention to it. Someone was calling weakly.  
"Help… please, help me… anyone…"  
"Hang on! I'm –" Link swallowed seawater and coughed. It was bitter, and Link had only swum in freshwater before.  
He got to the person, floating face down except when they gained the strength to raise their head and call.  
"Hang on," Link repeated, pulling them towards shore.  
"You idiot!" Tatl scolded, as a gull swooped down and met Link's right arm, protected by his shield.  
After what seemed like ages, Link and his burden came to sand. The person tried to help his rescuer, and half stood with an arm around the short Hylian's shoulders. The person was very tall. He was a Zora.  
"Ooh," he gasped as he collapsed onto dry sand. "Thanks, friend. I thought I was a goner."  
"You're all right now. I'm afraid I don't have any fairies with me, but maybe we can get to…"  
"Nah, I won't make it. I'm still a goner, just not from those pesks."  
"We can warp."  
"No, just listen for a minute. I was on a mission, a quest. Y'know?"  
"Yes?"  
"My wife laid seven eggs, but they were stolen by Gerudo pirates. I went to their fortress to get them back, and… well… just look at me."  
"Hm. I'll go."  
"That's what I hoped you'd say. My name's Mikau, of the Zora band the Indigo-gos. You can call me Mike. You heard of it?"  
"Afraid not," Link answered.  
"Ooh, yeah! You're the lead guitar, and your wife Lulu's the lead singer! Whoo!" Tatl cheered.  
Mikau grinned weakly. "Heh. I'm in no condition to play now." He pulled a large fishbone guitar off his back and strummed a few chords. "Oh, baby… I'm so sorry…"  
"Here," Link said, pulling out his Ocarina and playing the Song of Healing.  
Mikau's face relaxed peacefully. "Oh, that song does me good… I know what I'll do." His features contorted briefly, and then a bright flash of light consumed him.  
A small mask shaped like a Zora face lay on the sand. Link picked it up, and the mask winked and spoke to him. "You go get those eggs, dude. Maybe sometime we'll figure out how to change me back, but for now I'm safe." The mask hardened back into motionless wood.  
Link put on the mask. Again he screamed. The magic stretched his limbs out long, and fins sprouted from his elbows and hips.  
When he was done, he was a tall, handsome Zoran with a green tail-fin. He felt actually a lot like his grown-up self, only quicker, a bit lither, but a bit less powerful.  
"Wow," Tatl said. "You're cool now. Mike rules, by the way."  
"I feel… wait! This… this… I imagined this once!"  
"What are you talking about? Can't you speak clearly?" Tatl asked.  
"Once I had a dream of being a Zoran. I have a friend named Shoza, and I had a tunic that let me breath underwater, but I felt clumsy." His voice was a higher tenor than his adult voice.  
"So Zora is your favourite of all the races so far, huh? You gonna be a fairy next?"  
"Maybe. We'll have to wait and see." Link dove into the water. "Where's this Gerudo fortress?"  
"To your right. North."  
"How do you get in?" Link asked, five minutes later.  
Mike spoke in his head. "Underwater…"  
Link dove and found a tunnel.  
A few hours of sneaking later, fighting some Gerudos hand-to-hand as a Zoran, and he had three eggs and clues for the rest. Overhearing some Gerudos speaking, he learned that four others had fallen into an eel pit in the ocean. Mike panicked.  
"Oh, man, am I freaked out, dude. They'll get eaten for sure."  
"Don't be so hopeless," Link chided. "We'll go check it out, but I don't think this bottle can hold much more." He had dumped out the gold dust, reasoning that he could always win some more, and put the three eggs in instead.  
"We go incubate them at the sea research facility. That steel bubble thing by the shore."  
Link swam back, skimming the water like a dolphin, and put them in the big glass tank for Zora babies.  
Then he hopped back into the water and sank to the bottom. "I guess I'll follow the Gerudos, if they're on a rescue mission of their own."  
"Capture mission," Tatl said.  
Link waited until a boat exited from the fortress, and followed it, keeping just under the surface behind them until they stopped and sent down nets. Link looked down. It was a very, very deep pit, dark blue and apparently fathomless.  
Link dove, twisting and weaving – he liked it – around the startled giant eel heads that came out of their caves to eat him.  
When he reached the bottom, he had to fling a boomerang fin very fast at an eel that was striking at him. The boomerang killed the eel, which collapsed. Link entered the cave cautiously.  
A gentle light was emanating from the very back. It was a Zoran egg, in a pile of other things that Link supposed might look edible to an eel – bits of seaweed, dead fish, a dead crab, three jellyfish, and a sea urchin.  
"That's one, anyway," he said.  
He swam out of the cave and shot up through the water, pulling on magic to help him go faster. A blue vortex formed around him.  
Accidentally, he shot right into the outstretched neck of an eel. There was a rending sound, clearer in water than even in air – or perhaps it was just that Zorans could hear delicately underwater.  
The dead eel was sinking to the bottom of the pit, so Link looked in this cave as well. No egg.  
"Giant eels are bad, right?"  
"Yeah!" Tatl scolded. "They're monsters! Normal eels are all right. These eels dug this pit! Come on!"  
"Right. I don't understand your logic, but I don't feel bad about destroying them all."  
"Great!"  
Link swam up and down the immense tube-like hole in the ground, charging at eels until his magic power ran low.  
He managed to find three more eggs, bringing his total up to seven. He felt Mike's spirit relax, relieved.  
It was late afternoon, so he returned to Romani Ranch – Cremia had asked him back.  
She had a job for him. "Now that the roadblock is gone, I can make a delivery of milk to town. The only problem is…"  
"Yeah?" Tatl said. "I know my partner will jump at the chance to do more good around this popsicle stand."  
"… The Gorman brothers, who own the racetrack down the road, are always trying to steal my deliveries. Could you ride with me and protect me?"  
"Yes," Link said. "I will do that."  
"Have your bow ready. They might try to hurt you."  
Link mounted Epona, and followed Cremia's cart onto the road. When they came to the place the boulder had been, there was a fence.  
"Drat," Cremia spat. "They're back. We'll have to go the long way. Stay alert, young Link."  
The cart had hardly turned onto the racetrack before it was followed by two masked mounted men. Cremia urged her horses faster.  
Link twisted around and sent arrows whizzing past the ears of the men. They fell back. Each time they came closer, Link shot more arrows, trying not to hurt them, but gradually they were catching up with the cart.  
Finally they were right behind Link, so close he could hear them laughing at him. Link gritted his teeth and shot one in his outstretched hand, and the other in the shoulder. They cursed and peeled off the track. Link could see them trying to overtake the cart through the trees.  
"Link! Keep them back!" Cremia cried, trying to get her horses even faster.  
He fired an arrow each in front of each enemy steed, and they flinched and stopped.  
The cart burst out of the racetrack, out of the forest, and made for town. The bandits followed for a short time, but their pursuit was now hopeless and they turned back.  
Link helped Cremia carry the heavy ceramic milk jugs to the Milk Bar. She hummed a little song to herself.  
After she was done, she turned to Link and gave him a big hug. "Thank you so much for driving them off! It means a lot to me. Romani's Ranch can finally start getting back on its feet."  
"I'll escort you back, too," Link said. "Just in case."  
"Thanks. Here; here's some of what we made." She offered him several rupees.  
"No, no thanks. Keep it for the ranch."  
"But…"  
"Cremia, if you give it to me, I'll give it to Romani for her birthday."  
The young ranch owner's face broke into a smile. "Thank you again. Come, let's be getting home. That was exciting, wasn't it?"  
Link half-smiled back, hesitantly.  
The bandits were lurking along their path again, but Link yelled at them – "You want some more? Come and face me!" – and they slunk away.  
"If only they'd listen to their brother," Cremia sighed as she put the horses and Romani to bed.  
"They have a brother?" Tatl asked.  
"Yes. Gorman is his name, although his brothers are called the Gorman Brothers. I'm sure they have first names too. He went into the circus business, and he's very honest, but he's been having trouble. Maybe I'll go to the Milk Bar and see if I can find him."  
"No, let me. I don't think it's safe for you until they've stopped these raids."  
"You idiot!" Tatl squeaked.  
"Be careful," Cremia called.  
Link went on foot, since Epona was already stabled down.  
He entered the Milk Bar, having a small argument with a man at the door about letting minors in on harmless errands.  
He spotted Gorman, a thin, middle-aged, brightly dressed man with a large moustache.  
"Um, excuse me, sir!" he said softly beside him.  
"You idiot. Let me handle this," Tatl said. "Hey! You! Gorman-person!"  
The moustache quivered. "What do you want?"  
"Uh… uh…" Tatl forgot what she was going to say and improvised. "Your brothers are threatening a nice lady who owns a ranch and we want you to go and tell them to stop!" she blurted out in one long string.  
"I can't do that. They'll never listen to me." Gorman sighed heavily. "Take this mask. It might help you to convince them. Go away, please."  
The mask was a melancholy copy of Gorman's melancholy face. Link took it to the Gorman's racetrack.  
"Whaaargh! It's that stupid kid that interfered!"  
"Get 'im, bro!"  
One brother dove at Link, while the other tried to target him with an arrow.  
"Stop it!" Link shouted, rolling out of the way. "I'm here to talk to you!"  
"Ha, ha. Stuff it!"  
"No! I won't. I won't hurt you, but I need to talk to you!"  
"Yeah, right." The brothers backed off anyway. Link straightened up from his crouch, slowing his excited breathing.  
"I'm here to ask you to stop bothering Cremia. You don't need to steal. Please! Your brother wants you to stop too!"  
"Not working," Tatl whispered in his ear. "You can't do the earnest thing. That only works with intelligent people and chicks. Show 'em the mask."  
Link donned the mask as the two brothers advanced on him. It must have been magical, because tears fell from the wooden eyes.  
The two men stopped in their tracks. One of them sniffed loudly.  
"Brother…"  
They fell on their knees, sobbing. "Yes, we'll stop thieving! We'll be good! Oh, that mask is so real, it's frightening… Thank you, little boy, for showing us the light!"  
"You won't bother Cremia again?" Link asked.  
"No! Of course not! We'll go into the racing business right away!"  
"We're good at that!"  
Link bowed. "Thank you very much. I'll keep my eye on you for a while anyway, but I'm glad that you have decided to stop."  
He turned to go. "Tatl, hang back, hidden, and see if they start snickering."  
A few minutes later, the fairy returned to him as he was making his way back to the ranch. "Nope! I dunno why they fell for that mask so hard, but they're talking about the possibilities quite convincingly. I'll go back and keep an eye on them next time Cremia's scheduled to make a delivery, and see if they live up to it. Neh? I'm good too, right?"  
"Yes, that will be good. Thank you, Tatl."  
"Heh, your heroness must be rubbing off on me."  
The corner of Link's mouth curled up.

The next day was the third day. Link helped out around the ranch, keeping an eye on the racetrack owners, and waited until sunset to return to the first day. He had difficulty keeping his feet as frequent earthquakes shook the land.  
The sun set, and the moon was a dark, ominous cloud over the waiting town. Link gazed at it from the roof of the ranch, and took out his Ocarina.  
Dawn broke over the clock tower as the young boy stepped out again.  
He exited town towards the west and stopped beside a fountain. Taking out his mask of Mikau, he sat down and looked at it.  
"Well, Mike, what should I do now? Are there any other problems in the ocean?"  
The mask lay still.  
"I'm willing to bet there are, but he's too weak to tell you. Hey! I remember! The Skull Kid went to the Gerudos once and told them there was treasure in the dragons den out there. He probably messed with that, too. Let's go see!"  
"Right. Sorry, Mike." Link called Epona and rode down to the beach. Finding a tunnel through a rocky headland to another portion of the beach, he went through and found Zoras.  
"Yo, man!" one called. "Haven't seen too many Hylians 'round this neck of the woods. Who're you?"  
"My name's Link. Can you tell me if there's been anything unusual going on, anything bad?"  
"Sure! There's a dragons' den – hurricane –"  
"I know –"  
"Good! – out in the bay, around our Great Bay Temple. Also, Lulu's eggs got stolen…"  
"That's been fixed. I met Mikau, and while he is too weak to remain flesh and blood right now, he's all right, and I got the eggs back."  
"Awesome! You should go tell Lulu. I'll show you the way, okay, guys?"  
The other Zorans nodded and continued hitting at targets with their boomerangs. Link put on his Zora mask.  
"Whoa! You weren't kidding. Can I talk to Mike through that?"  
Mike was stirring, trying not to take energy from Link, until Link shoved a bunch into him purposefully. He felt Mike taking over his mouth.  
"Sorry, man. I got beat up by Gerudos and birds. Not a good day. Link here saved me, and he's a professional hero, man, so just trust him, 'kay?"  
"Right!"  
"I'm sorry," Mikau said in Link's head.  
"What?"  
"That's your life energy!"  
"You need it. I'm going to give you some more when we reach your wife, too."  
"Aw… gee, thanks."  
"It's fine. Don't worry about it."  
Link swam with the Zora to a large fish head carved out of stone. The fish's mouth was deep underwater, but the passage inside sloped up. The Zora ahead of him gave a little extra spurt out of the water and rolled gracefully. Link followed him more clumsily by walking, making a mental note to try that water-exit manoeuvre soon.  
"Lulu's room is –"  
"Wow!" Tatl cut off the Zora. "This place is gorgeous!"  
Link had to agree. It was smoothed out of blue stone, and the centre hall, well lit with torches, held a huge clamshell with a moat around it. The pearly clamshell looked like a stage, and the sight of a couple of Zoras performing music confirmed that. The moat was full of multi-coloured corals and anemones.  
"So…" the Zora waited. "Yeah, it's pretty beautiful. I always think that we're the luckiest race in Termina."  
"If you're done looking around, Lulu's room is that one right there," he pointed to one of many doors lining the edge of the big hall, "but feel free to go anywhere. Just knock first. If nobody's in, you probably can go in. She might not be in there, you know."  
"Thank you very much," Link said to the Zora, and went over to the door. He knocked, but there was no answer. He went in.  
The chamber was a cozy little place, with coral furniture and golden hangings. However, it had been brutally attacked, and the scars were everywhere. Knife-marks were everywhere, and the hangings were torn. A small pile of stabbed papers lay on a green table. Link picked one up.  
"… I woke suddenly, and there were Gerudos in my room! Mike … up, and tried to fight them, but they left very …"  
"… eggs gone, and I can't sing, I can't talk, I can't whisper, and Mike has gone after…"  
Link put down the diary page and looked around again. There was no sign of a Zora, so he left the room.  
He asked a Zora outside if he had seen Lulu.  
"Lulu? She ought to be outside, on the balcony, where she usually is. Just up the stairs – you remember, right, Mikau?"  
Link started to say that he wasn't Mikau, but then decided the explanation would take too long and headed up the ramp to the second level. Light streamed in from the door.  
A pretty Zoran woman dressed in blue stood looking out at the ocean. Her eyes were filled with grief. Mike went up to her and put an arm around her shoulders.  
"S'okay, Lulu, love. Me and a guy named Link got the eggs back. I'm too weak to be technically alive right now, so this body is actually Link, but trust me, we'll find a way to get me back to normal." Lulu embraced Mikau, resting her head on his shoulder for a brief moment, and then turned away to go back to watching the ocean. Mike really wanted to kiss Lulu, Link could tell. But he didn't understand yet that Link had been older than thirteen already, and had been in love himself, and so he held back, not wanting to have a private moment in front of a child. Link thought that he should tell him more about himself sometime soon. "The eggs are safe, love. Here…"  
Mikau took his guitar off Link's back and began to play. The gentle, slightly blue arpeggios rippled out over the ocean. Lulu opened her mouth and began to sing, peacefully.  
When the song was done, Mike took Lulu's arm, but water sprayed skyward! There was a massive upheaval from a small island with two trees in front of them, and it was moving, but it was not an earthquake. Link shielded his eyes from the wet with his left arm and watched in astonishment as a huge, old turtle lifted its head out of the water and blinked solemnly at them both.  
"Mmmm! How long have I slept? Well, it doesn't matter. Lulu's voice woke me." Lulu stared at the creature in awe. "You seem confused. Well, that doesn't matter either. I know you all; I am the guardian of these waters, and I know everything that happens, even when I'm asleep. Tell me, young warrior, do you know of Great Bay Temple?"  
"No, not really. I heard it's inside a hurricane."  
"Yes. I will take you there so that you may break the curse on it."  
"It's a good thing that we were planning to do that in the first place!" Tatl yelled. "We gotta break the curses on all the temples, but that's just rude, assuming we-"  
"Tatl, please," Link said, trying to swat her with his hat, forgetting that it was attached to his head as a Zora.  
"What? It's true!"  
Link sighed and hookshotted to the turtle's back via the trees. The turtle winked at Lulu and turned for the swirling mass of cloud on the horizon.

When they reached the temple, Link ducked to avoid an oar that narrowly missed his head. The palm trees bent alarmingly, and Link clung to them, and Tatl clutched to his elbow to avoid being blown away.  
The tortoise entered a cavern in the side of a towering structure. Link climbed off and onto a sort of dock, lined with barrels.  
"Fight well, little hero. I will wait for you here."  
"Thanks, Great One!" Tatl said, mostly seriously.  
Link waved and set off into the temple.  
It appeared to be a mechanical conglomeration of pipes, valves, paddlewheels, nozzles, jets, switches, taps, platforms, see-saws, and monsters. Some, like the glowing hand of seaweed, were actually life-threatening; others, like the little live bombchus, were simply startling.  
He was startled when he found himself in front of the boss chamber. A whole day had passed since he had started, and he had found himself so caught up in solving the puzzles – and being frustrated by them – that he had barely allotted himself time to eat and a few hours of sleep.  
He had a few more bites before entering. It wouldn't help him fight any better, or give him energy or strength, but it would keep him from feeling hungry. He had fought on an empty stomach before, but it was preferable not to.  
The boss chamber was a square pool, with only dim lighting coming down from the opening in the ceiling. In the centre there was a round platform just barely protruding from the water.  
An enormous, dark red fish splashed out of the water and whooshed past Link's head. It sprayed him with water as it fell heavily back into the water.  
Link transformed into a Zora and plunged into the water, zipping along with magic swirling around him. He spotted the fish, lurking in a dark corner, and neatly dodged the sharp teeth, ramming his head with all its magic shield into the fish's side. He bounced off. He shot for the surface, and somersaulted onto the platform as the monster snapped its jaws at his heels.  
Turning, he transformed back and shot an ice arrow at it: Zoras were ill suited to firing bows because of their slightly webbed fingers. The ice spread through its joints, and Zora-Link dove back into the water to try again. He wanted to fight the thing one-on-one as a Zoran hero, seeing as he loved being a Zora so much.  
This time, magic hit the fish's body and wounded it. Link darted away before it had time to chomp him – those teeth looked painful; worse than painful: they looked like one bite would tear him to shreds, and he didn't care for that to happen.  
It took him many arrows and much zooming through the water to injure the fish further. There were many close calls, but Link was actually enjoying himself… in a rather darker way than usual.  
As he leaped out of the water again, blood trickling from scrapes and cuts, mingling with the water streaming off his body, the fish leaped after him. Link ducked. It had done this before, but this time…  
The fish was shrinking. Its head fell off, but the fish itself didn't seem to be lacking one… A small silver fish no bigger than his hand flopped around in the middle of the platform he was standing on, until it gave one great convulsive leap and landed in the water.  
Link did not untense until he had picked up the fish mask it had left behind and warped to the cave with the turtle, who ferried him back to the place where Lulu was.  
Thanking the giant turtle, who went back to sleep, he turned and touched Lulu's arm gently.  
"I'm sorry about Mike, but after I keep the moon from falling we'll find a way to restore him. I'm certain of it."  
"Thank you, Link the Hylian," Lulu said softly. "Please take him with you as long as you need him."  
"Thanks. He's a terrific help. Good bye!"  
"Good bye, hero."

Link returned to Romani Ranch, and found the sisters still remembered him – they had lived through the time change, along with all the others he had helped, and while it was a bit troublesome that each time they had to do the same things again, barring the things he had changed such as the invading aliens, they still did them in case today was the day that Link broke the cycle. He raced Romani once, and then had to come in to the house to eat and sleep.  
It was the second day, and Link spent his time wandering again, trying to find the last temple that was somewhere in the east. He found a canyon full of bomchus, and gates only Epona could leap past, since he was riding her. He found a graveyard full of Stalchildren, and a huge old Stalfos who spoke to him after he woke it and challenged him to a footrace. It wasn't necessarily a fair foot race, but Link caught him anyway, and the Stalfos gave him a mask before burying himself in the ground to sleep. After this, Link discovered that he could talk to the Stalchildren without being attacked by them. They were actually rather helpful.  
For that night, he went to the Stock Pot Inn. He found some solace in the innkeeper, a young woman named Anju with short red hair. She, too, was missing a lover – her fiancé Kafei had disappeared mysteriously, and she was very worried inside.  
Link found himself telling her all about himself, while Tatl and his masks listened. He told her how he had gone forward in time to fight Ganondorf, and fallen in love with his best friend, and how she had been taken from him just when she had become cured. Then he became more philosophical.  
"So, this is the odd part. I realized just the other day that I didn't want to smile or laugh anymore because she was my happiness. But, I did smile at something funny, and then I remembered her and realized that I'd turned into something like her – brooding, and whatnot."  
Anju listened carefully. "She seems like the kind of person who would want you to be happy whether she was alive or not."  
"Yes, I know. She would want me to live life as joyfully as I could, so that I could live, in a way, her life as well. Does that make sense?"  
"Yes, it does. I need to keep my spirits up so that Kafei isn't unhappy because of me when he returns. But there's a difference. If I'm so happy I forget him, which wouldn't happen, but let's just say; he would… well, that would be a bad thing."  
"I understand. So I should experience everything for Rana, keeping everything in my heart and mind, remembering her every moment, but with joy, not sorrow."  
"You're a wise… child."  
Link smiled more easily. "I'm still not sure what age I'm supposed to be. There's still some adult left in me. I'm supposed to be living out my earlier life, but it's very strange."  
He paused. "It's been a year. Yes, I should give up my grief. Thank you, Anju."  
"It's nothing. You have helped me too. I can wait for Kafei better now."  
"I'll find him soon. His mother asked me to help, too. I know what he looks like."  
"That would be wonderful!"  
"I betcha the Skull Kid has something to do with that," Tatl said unexpectedly. "I wouldn't know, but that mask likes messing with people, so…"  
"Why wouldn't you know?" Link asked curiously.  
"Hey, powerful magic is beyond me. It probably did stuff from a distance."  
"Hm."  
Link went back out and wandered through the torch-lit streets. In the West Town, he found two girls of the carnival still trying to perfect a dance. They just couldn't find the right moves.  
Well, Link had met the ghost of a dance master, and so he went up to them.  
"Excuse me…"  
"Go away! We don't need people staring while we practice!"  
"Um, but we can help with your dance!" Tatl yelled back. "We gotta magic mask that'll show you! Put it on, Link!"  
Link shrugged, left the rather embarrassing mask in his pack, and did the dance that the ghost had taught him.  
"Ooh!" said one girl, in pink.  
"Hm," said the other, in blue.  
"Like this?" they both said, copying him.  
After they did it perfectly, they both threw themselves at him, hugging and kissing him. They bowed at his feet, fawning and giggling.  
"He's so cute!"  
"Master, would you stay with us forever?"  
"Uh…" Link managed to force out, and then they glomped him again. "Gah! Sorry, you're making a lot of fuss over a dance…"  
"But you're so cute!" the pink one screamed, half-strangling him.  
Link struggled free and made a run for it. He returned to the inn and went to bed, his mind roiling with the past and the future and the adrenaline of escape.  
Although he had given up his future with Rana, he still hadn't given up Rana. Those two girls had disturbed him. He wasn't yet ready to make a new close friend with a girl, like with Saria and with Malon, and he was pretty certain that the two dancers were not right for him.  
'What am I talking about? I'm only thirteen now,' he told himself. 'I will never give up Rana, but I have time to stop getting wierded out by girls.'  
'Besides, those two girls were the strangest I've ever met.'


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Link awoke on the third day and journeyed to Ikana Canyon. He discovered an ancient civilization had been there before him, and had covered the desert land in gibdos, redead, and ninja assassins. The assassins were especially annoying, because they would pop out of nowhere with a ring of fire and then he would have to fight them, and they weren't particularly difficult to defeat, either.  
He rescued a small girl's father, the girl named Pamela. Her father had hidden himself in a closet, and was turning into a Gibdo, ostensibly in the name of research, but he attacked Link, who managed to duck the inexperienced monster and play the Song of Healing. Pamela came back from an errand she had to do, and was relieved to see her father again – apparently, she had only known that her father was hiding, but not that he was turning into a monster.  
Tatl hid from the man in order to avoid being 'studied'.  
"Monsters inside, monsters outside… what a terrible place for a child. The Kokiri Forest…"  
"Was really horrible also and you know it!" Tatl told him.  
"…Was safe and welcoming to us."  
"Well, nyah, nyah."  
Link, armed with the gibdo mask the man had left behind from his transformation, ventured around Ikana, regarded as a mini-gibdo by his enemies. Some larger gibdos sent him on shopping missions, all of which he completed in about a day. His collected reward was a mirror-like shield, round with a face on it, that was the right size for his current height.  
He finally found the way into Ikana Castle, the main gate of which had been sealed, and hunted around for signs of life. When he found none, except for some gracefully dancing redead, he began to cleanse it of monsters.  
He came to the throne room and met three floating skulls. Two of them, bickering guards, challenged him, transforming into full-blown Stalfos. One was short and big-boned, the other was tall and lightly built. They both behaved in the most ridiculous way, yelling at each other, whining, and squabbling. Link wondered where he'd met them before… and then realized that they were just like the Twinrova sisters he had fought in the desert.  
The windows were covered in heavy drapes, so Link was at a bit of a disadvantage in the dark at first, until he had the brilliant idea of opening the curtains. The controls were out of sight, so he simply burned them with his fire arrows.  
The light hurt the two soldiers when they accidentally blundered into it, and he decided that instead of being like pure Stalfos, they were more like redead. The soldiers, although they fought together, were not coordinated, and he took them out quickly.  
Then he had to fight the king. Already rather tired from his long trek through the castle and his fight with the two guards, the king was a much greater challenge. The King of Ikana fought with a massive curved katana, and he was much cannier than his hapless bodyguards.  
Link thanked his shield many times during that fight, and his reflexes as well. The guards, still chattering, distracted him more than he would like to admit, but he managed to avoid becoming chopped in half.  
Half an hour later, Link was almost too tired to fight any longer. He retreated to the centre of the beam of light and crouched, panting, watching the king warily.  
The king charged him. Link could read his actions: it was a trick to flush him out. When he ducked or dodged, he would be dead.  
Link charged back. The king skidded to a halt on his bony feet, not expecting a frontal charge, but Link rolled between his long, thin legs, leaped up, bounced off the wall, and kicked the king into the light.  
The skeleton of the king, all but the head, vapourized.  
Link sagged and breathed a sigh of relief.  
The king scolded the two guards into golden silence, and then turned to Link.  
"You, o brave warrior, have released us from eternal doom. If you will, I would ask you to go to the Temple and defeat the menace that dwells there also."  
"I will," Link said.  
"That's our job! Don't try to tell us our job!" Tatl squeaked. Link shushed her once again.  
"Don't be rude," he said softly.  
The king politely ignored Tatl and continued, giving Link another magic song that would come in handy. It made a statue of him with magic, and with experimenting, Link found that it would make four different statues: one in each of his forms.  
So armed, he set off for the Stone Tower Temple. It was at the top of a very tall tower that appeared on the horizon of the canyon like a massive bees' nest. Boulders were constantly rolling back and forth inside, and he heard the groans of undead. He never saw them, though. His hookshot was his life in that tower, although he had to do a fair bit of manual climbing as well.  
Once at the top, where he was safer, he took a nap and had some food. He was getting very tired.

When he woke, he was refreshed. Link and Tatl went and fought through the confusing Stone Tower Temple, and found that the power of light arrows was also essential. Link had forgotten about them; he hadn't used them since the battle with Ganondorf, and felt that they were too powerful and special for normal use.  
There were several powerful foes to fight; a ninja master, who used teleportation, and fire, bringing back two bad memories at once. Link kept his focus, somehow, and defeated him. The next one was most unusual: a vampire, armed with an enormous scythe, and master of bats and Keese.  
The creatures that ruled the temple were a pair of giant sand-snakes, or moldorm, and Tatl called it Twinmold.  
Link put on a mask he had found and felt agony once more, but it was worth it. He was now as big as the snakes, and it was much easier to chop up their vulnerable tails.  
He killed both snakes and found the mask they had worn.  
When he picked it up, he appeared in the strange otherworld filled with iridescent bubbles that the giants appeared in. There were four giants surrounding the tall pillar they stood on.  
"They're saying… uh… stuff. Okay. They're talking about the Skull Kid. Um… they'll stop the moon… What? What? … … … "Forgive your friend"? What do you mean? What?"  
"The Skull Kid is not to blame," Link said softly. "The mask is."  
"Forgive… that's all they're saying now."  
The Hylian and the fairy found themselves outside of the temple.  
"Forgiveness is a powerful thing," Link said, taking out his Ocarina and going back in time.  
"It's hard, though," Tatl said back.

Link found that going back in time had given him three days to prepare, so he remembered another thing that he had promised someone.  
"I need to find Kafei," he told Tatl.  
"Right! That guy! Well, he had purple hair, and a pretty face…"  
"We need to look more diligently. I need breakfast."  
He went to buy some fruit, like he usually did, and purple hair caught his eye.  
"Hey! Who's that?"  
"It's a little kid with a Keaton mask," Tatl replied, bored. "So?"  
"He looks just like the mask…"  
"He put a letter in the mailbox. You gonna go talk to him?"  
"No. He's gone. Let's find out who he was writing to."  
"You're going to read people's letters!?" Tatl screamed, shocking several people nearby. Link winced and resisted the urge to grab his fairy and squeeze.  
"No," he said with much patience, "but we will find out somehow if that was Kafei or not. Now, please, shut up."  
"Allll riiiight," Tatl sighed.  
The postman came, and Link followed him. He could hear the postman chattering to himself.  
"Only one letter today… but I shall deliver it perfectly! Ya!"  
The letter went to the inn, and Anju gasped and cried out at the sight of it.  
"Where did this letter come from?"  
"From a postbox."  
"Oh!" she groaned. "From a postbox where?"  
"From a postbox in this town."  
"Ugh," exclaimed Anju, and gave up. She took the letter and read it quickly, then turned to Link, who was sitting on a bench nearby. "Little boy, I mean, Link, can you meet me in the kitchen tonight, after everyone has gone to bed?"  
"All right," Link said. "Is it to do with Kafei?"  
"Yes."  
"I think I saw him, but I'm not sure. He was wearing a mask, and I don't know where he went."  
"I'm sure you saw him, because this letter is his. Shoo, now. I have work to do."  
Link left and sat on the edge of a balcony, swinging his feet. "I suppose she couldn't remember me perfectly because of the time loop."  
"Yeah, don't you know? She's met you earlier today than ever, so… wait, that doesn't make sense."  
Link waited for a few minutes.  
"Oh, I know," Tatl said. "It's called… magic. It takes care of the things we can't understand."  
"You're odd," Link said.  
"You're a doofus," Tatl retorted, taking offense.  
Link shrugged and went to go see the Bombers.  
That evening he returned to the inn.  
Anju met him in the kitchen as she said she would.  
"Oh, Link, I can't tell you what that letter's done for me. He's all right, and he still loves me. Remember our conversation?"  
"You said at the end you would wait for him more easily."  
"Yes, I resolved to have faith. Now, I want you to bring him a message from me saying that."  
"I'll do that."  
"This is my message," said Anju, taking off a necklace and laying it in his palm. "Tell him I will wait as long as necessary."  
"Yes, I will. I'm almost ready to defeat the mask that's causing all this trouble, but my mission right now is to restore Kafei to you. I'll find out what's going on. Without prying," he added, seeing Anju's face whiz through expressions.  
"All right. I trust you."  
"Thanks."  
"What about me?" Tatl demanded. "Do you trust me?"  
"Yes," said Anju and Link at the same time, "but not with the necklace," Link added.  
"Hey!"  
Anju laughed. "You can sleep here tonight, if you want."  
"Thank you. It'll be a big help. I've been getting tired more early lately."  
"You've been working hard, to hear of your adventures. Take a rest."  
Link nodded, feeling that another thanks would be redundant, and went to bed.

The next morning, Link got up with the birds and went searching seriously for Kafei.  
It took him until almost nightfall, questioning everyone, but at sunset, which was clouded with rain as it always was the second day, he found a small back door which was unlocked. He knocked.  
"Go away!" called the voice of a small boy, about Link's age or slightly younger.  
"I'm looking for Kafei. I have a message for him."  
"From who?"  
"Anju."  
The door opened a tiny crack and a yellow snout greeted Link. He started until he realized it was the Keaton mask. The wearer had purple hair.  
"Come inside, quick," hissed the boy. Link slid inside the door and closed it. He followed the boy up a steep flight of stairs into a loft. The boy turned around.  
"Give me the message. I'll see that he gets it. I know where he is."  
"You are Kafei, aren't you?" Tatl asked, as Link held out the necklace, smiling.  
The boy removed his mask and took the necklace with wide eyes.  
"Okay, I am… startled. No one else recognized me in this mask, firstly."  
"Everybody else is idiots," Tatl said, ungrammatically.  
"Also, how did you get this?"  
"This is Anju's message," Link said. "She got your letter and it made her very happy. She will wait for you as long as necessary."  
"Now answer some of our ques-" Tatl was cut off by Link catching her in his hat.  
"Sorry. My question is… do you need help with something?"  
Kafei sighed. "Lots of things. My wedding is supposed to be the day after tomorrow, but my wedding mask was stolen. On top of that, some enchantment has turned me into a little boy. I hid, embarrassed, although I made a deal with the postman. He's the only one who knows, and the only one I feel I can trust. He's very reliable."  
"I think we're already on the enchantment problem. I'll deal with that tomorrow night."  
"Then, my mask. The antiques shop is just down there, and sooner or later the man who stole it will be there: Sakon. He'll come in with something, and then I'll track him to his lair."  
"I can help with that. Would you like me to?"  
"You're only a little boy with a sword."  
"Right now, you're only a little boy, too." Kafei glared at him, but Link kept talking. "I was once nineteen years old, and I was in love, too. Magic sealed me away for seven years so that I could use the Master Sword and defeat a menace that was threatening my homeland, Hyrule. Now, I'm living through the years I missed."  
"And you were in love? That happens."  
Link said nothing for a while. "I'll wait with you."  
"Sure, if you're going to help."

They waited, taking turns peering through a tiny hole in the wall to the shop below, snatching bits of sleep and food. Tatl bothered them both, but Kafei bore it admirably.  
It was almost dusk of the last day when Sakon came. Tatl, who was watching, although Link frowned at her almost continuously, not entirely trusting her to be trustworthy, started squeezing through the hole. Link dove at her, but she got through first. "I'll follow him and tell you where he goes!"  
"Tatl, no!" Link hissed softly.  
Kafei sped down the stairs as softly as he could and in the direction of West Clock Town. Link followed.  
Tatl and Sakon were nowhere in sight. Link ran to the exits out of the west town, but Sakon wasn't there either.  
"Drat!" Kafei spat. "He's gone!" He ran out the gate frantically.  
"Kafei! Wait!" Link ran after him.  
After a few minutes of staring around, Link spotted Tatl, approaching them.  
"You didn't lose him?"  
"No! I'm not dumb! Get on your horse and follow me!"  
Link called Epona, mounted, and turned to Kafei. "Get on, quick." Kafei, with some misgiving – Link guessed he'd never ridden a horse before – mounted and clung to Link.  
"Fast, now, Epona. We have little time." Epona obeyed.  
Tatl led them to Ikana Canyon.  
"Where's his hideout?" Kafei yelled.  
"It's a cave on a ledge above the river!" Tatl answered.  
"I hope we're not too late!" Link shouted.  
They came to the cliff and Link dismounted and got out his hookshot. "Hang on to me, Kafei." Kafei grabbed him in a bear-hug.  
"You're amazingly competent and prepared. I'm sorry I underestimated you," he said, as they whipped to the top of the cliff.  
"'S fine. Come on!"  
They came to a cave that Link hadn't found before, but a large rock that was obviously the door was nearby. Kafei charged inside.  
"My mask!" he yelled, running at it.  
The golden mask began to move! It was on a conveyor belt under glass that led to a dark, deep hole.  
"What's happening?" Tatl squealed.  
Kafei saw an open door and ran to it, but a hidden switch he had been standing on released, closing the door.  
"I'll get it!" Link called, jumping on it.  
Kafei nodded and hurried into a room full of red and blue switches, and one yellow switch. He ran to the yellow switch, stepping on all the blue ones he could along the way.  
Link could hear Sakon muttering. "Blast, these intruders are smarter than I thought.  
No door opened for Kafei, but one opened for Link's side. Link dodged and killed a white Wolfos, and Kafei could go forward again.  
Sakon's elaborate security system, in the end, was not enough. With their hearts pounding, the two boys jumped on the last switches and saved the mask from falling down the hole. Kafei cautiously stepped off his switch, and the mask stayed in place. With a sigh of relief, he took it from the conveyor belt.  
"Let's get back to town," Link said, checking the clock on the wall.  
The ride back was not nearly as panic-stricken as the ride from the town, but Link was getting anxious, watching the position of the moon in the sky.  
"It's all right for now," Kafei said finally. "The doors are only going to open in about ten minutes, so you have plenty of time to get to the clock tower."  
"You go ahead and tell Anju what's happened. I'll check on you before I go."  
"Please. I have something for you."  
Link sent Epona back to the ranch and went after Kafei.  
Kafei and Anju were embracing, staring into each other's eyes when Link knocked and entered Anju's room. They looked up, smiling. Tatl whispered that they looked like mother and child, but Link ignored her.  
"So, you'll be all right, now?"  
"Yes. We'll be fine. We each have a present for you, and all your help. I couldn't have gotten the mask back without you, so here… in memory of my childhood." Kafei gave Link the Keaton mask, which, Link had noticed before, had been bouncing around on his back the entire time.  
"And from me, a mask in memory of us both. You'll be leaving after you defeat the evil mask?"  
"Yes. I'm sorry. Maybe I'll stay an extra day to see your wedding."  
"You don't have to," Anju said, smiling warmly, giving him a silver oval mask.  
"Thank you."  
"We will stay here now. Tomorrow, we will watch the sunrise…"  
Anju held Kafei tightly as they watched Link and Tatl run down the stairs and out of the inn.

Link left and ran across the square to the tower. The door was open and the stairs were set up. He darted up, hardly pausing to grab his Ocarina out of its pouch.  
The Skull Kid hovered in the air. When he saw Link, he giggled.  
"Look who's here! It's the dumb guy!"  
"Tael!" cried Tatl. "Look out! He'll hit you!"  
"I have something to tell you." Tatl's little brother fluttered forward a little way. "Jungle… mountain… ocean… desert… bring them here."  
"Look out, Tael! Duck!" Tatl yelled desperately. "Link, hurry up!"  
The Skull Kid whapped Tael out of the way viciously. "Stupid fairy – talking out of turn!"  
"Tael! No!" Tatl squealed. "Majora's Mask! You'll pay for this!"  
The Skull Kid shrugged. "And why should I care? I don't need friends anymore… not when they'll all be sorry for not being nice to me… not when I do… THIS!" He flung his arms out and shrieked, a thin, piercing cry that sent purple waves up to the descending moon. The descent hastened. The moon was turning red from the friction of the atmosphere.  
"Link, what are you doing?"  
Tael stirred from where he had falled to the floor. "Jungle… mountain… ocean… … desert… hurry…"  
Link finished the last note of the Oath to Order.  
There was a massive tremor in the ground, and on the horizon, four great figures appeared and strode towards the town, singing in their sad, deep voices. They halted just outside of each gate, and swung their long arms up to balance the moon.  
The eastern sky was getting light.  
The moon shuddered to a halt. The quivering limbs of the giants held it at bay.  
Link took a deep breath and turned to the Skull Kid and the Mask. Tael twitched and flew to Tatl, hugging her gladly.  
The Skull Kid dropped to the ground like a rag doll, and the mask floated up, making malevolently gleeful noises. It disappeared into the mouth on the face of the moon.  
Navi, her bottle smashed, flew in ecstatic circles around Link's head. "Come!"  
Link followed the mask on the wind trail left behind.

He found himself lying in a deep field of tall, brilliant green grass. The sun was pouring down on him, and he had a memory of another time when he had felt as rested and peaceful and joyful with the glory of the simple world, once, in Kokiri Forest, when he was very young.  
He sat up, and saw to his right a spreading oak tree. The place was not Kokiri Forest, then, because the glade of grass had been entirely surrounded with young birches and this place was a wide field stretching as far as the eye could see.  
Link caught sight of the three fairies, one purple, and remembered where he was, and what he was there for.  
He headed quickly for the oak, the fairies bobbing in his wake.  
Four figures of children in white were strolling around the tree. They wore the masks of the creatures that had imprisoned the giants.  
Link caught the one with the Aztec warrior's mask. The child demanded that he be a mask salesman, and though it was with misgivings that Link handed over one mask of his collection of twenty-three, he hoped that something good would come out of it.  
Whiteness covered him, and he found himself standing in a woodland with no bottom and ledges around the edge of a chasm. Link turned himself into a Deku and flew to the other side.  
Navi looked at him.  
Link discovered a door in a tree trunk, and entered into a small room with the mask boy standing in it.  
"Why do you do what you do?" he asked, but did not wait for an answer.  
Link found himself under the oak tree again. He shook his head to clear it and walked to where the boy with the mask of Goht was standing, looking over the sunny field.  
This boy, too, asked for masks, and took Link to a dark cave with one narrow walkway in it.  
At the end of the runway was a pair of open metal treasure chests. Link peered into the darkness and saw another walkway, too far to jump.  
That puzzled him for a long time. He was a little bit anxious about the time he was spending, but this place seemed to be timeless, so he was not too afraid that the moon would fall while he sat and thought about it. He didn't want to make a mistake and fall to his death when he was so close.  
"Well, you were a Deku in the last place, so maybe… this looks like a Goron place… can you turn into a Goron?" Tael asked timidly.  
"Yes, I can. Thanks for the hint, Tael. I think we're on the right track." Link changed.  
"Okay," Navi said. "I have no idea what you're doing or how you're doing it, but you'd better explain after this is all over, partner."  
"I will, don't worry," Link said, giving her a toothy Goron grin.  
He looked at the ledge. "Can one or two of you go and see if the path ends suddenly? Or, if it doesn't end suddenly?"  
"What, with the treasure chests as turns?"  
"Yes."  
Tatl and Tael flew off. Link treasured each precious second with Navi until they returned.  
"There's a big broad part pretty close after that. Just steer really straight, and you should make it," Tatl reported.  
Link began to roll, picking up speed until spikes shot out of the whirling ball of Goron that he was.  
He found his way around the rest of the dungeon without much incident.  
"Why do you help people?" asked the mask boy dreamily as he sent Link and his escorts out of the cave.  
Link found the boy with the fish mask, and gave up more masks, reluctantly. He was running out, and though he still had his favourites – the Bunny Hood, the masks Anju and Kafei had given him, and the transformation masks, and the mask that Cremia had given him – he had no doubt that the last boy would ask for all that he had left.  
Mike was glad to take part in the solving, and Link borrowed his body to whip through narrow water tunnels, his fins carving long roiling paths of bubbles behind him.  
He found his way through the maze by guesswork, but nothing appeared to attack him.  
"What is the most important thing to you?" asked the third boy.  
Link went to talk to the last boy, the one with the mask of the three-eyed desert snake. Indeed, the boy demanded all his masks but the ones Link used to transform into another race.  
That dungeon was the hardest, and the most like a dungeon. Link needed all his resources. Many rooms and broken traps stretched behind him by the time he reached the last chamber.  
"What are you?" whispered the masked child "How do you know what you are, and how did you choose to be that way?"  
Link had no time to answer even one of these questions, as he found himself back under the oak among a crowd of butterflies. He turned toward the tree, and sighted a fifth boy standing among the roots, this one wearing the cursed Majora's Mask.  
He went up to him and waited patiently.  
"Who are you?" asked the boy. "You have come to play with me, have you not? You cannot have even a fair play as you are. I will give you another mask."  
"My name is Link. I have come to… play," Link answered. "What kind of mask is it?"  
The boy's voice smiled. "You'll see." He pushed the mask of a pale face, tattooed in blue, framed with white hair, into Link's hands. "We can play now."  
"Wait," Link said, but they had already gone into a warp. When they came out of it into a glowing blue chamber, he asked: "The other boys asked me questions, but didn't wait to hear the answers. Do you want the answers?"  
The child looked at him sharply. "I have all the answers. I don't have time to waste playing riddles."  
For an ancient demon, he is very much in mind the way he appears; that is, a child, Link thought. The others all wanted to change, I think… and that is why they asked me… Majora must want to change also, or perhaps he is innocent and doesn't realize what pain and hurt is… No, that's not right. He does know, but not because he is born of darkness. People shunned him because of the darkness he came from, and he experienced it himself. Now he… wanted to hurt others because he was hurt? But why does he want to play? What can I do for him to show him the truth?  
"Why do I help people?" he asked softly.  
The child ignored him, waving at the walls. "Come out, friends!"  
Four masks detached themselves from the walls and zoomed at Link. Majora himself went and attached himself to the wall at the back of the room.  
Link looked at the mask in his hands. It seemed to be warm, or glow with an unseen, internal light, or it was the expression on the face was unsettling, but it was clearly the container of another demon. Link looked up at all the masks against him and knew there was little time left. He put it on.  
Fire coursed through him. His body was stretched. Even as he felt his physical form changing, the demon in the mask came to life and fought with his mind and soul.  
For this demon, why was everything. He wanted to be convinced, and quickly.  
Link convinced him enough to move, and leapt aside just in time as the mask of Goht swept into the space he had been. His body felt heavy, and he knew it was a combination of the fact that he was fighting the demon, and that the demon was not letting him use the glorious new body he had yet.  
"Lend me your strength!" Link cried to the spirit.  
"You are… strong yourself…" said the demon. "You… are one who does not delight in destruction. Is that not strange? The beauty of inflicting pain… the glory of obliteration… are not these things the best things in the world?"  
"No," Link answered, glad to have questions he could answer. "The best things in the world differ from person to person, but I can tell you truly that they include peace, and delight in the beauty of the world, and the love of the people dear to you… You don't know of these things, do you?"  
"I… do not. You… are strange. Will you… show me… these new things of which you speak?"  
"I will. If you lend me your strength, I can show you all this and more…"  
The demon was silent.  
"I will give you my strength. Your name?"  
"Link."  
The fairies had stood amazed to see Link having a bizarre, un-Linkish argument with himself, and only dodging, not attacking with the weapon that was still sheathed, but now they understood.  
Link himself was suddenly filled with the fierce joy of the demon. He was as tall as his nineteen year old self, with longer hair that was pure white. His clothes were the similar as his older self, but they, too, were pure white, with a blue sweater and pants under the tunic, and silvery armour protecting his chest. He saw his face in the mirror of the wall, and saw it was tattooed the same as the mask. He reached back with his left hand and drew a huge sword in a flattened helix shape, forged of gleaming blue steel. He swung it in circles, using first one hand and then two, twirling it experimentally as he tested his new strength, which was beyond anything he remembered. Magic flowed through the sword and shot from the end in a blue wave.  
The demon laughed joyfully, and the voice, too, was like Link's older self. "We are… more similar than you guessed at first. You, too, enjoy strength. I do as well. I will follow you… Link."  
"I do not enjoy strength for the power it brings," Link corrected him. "I love strength for the ability to protect those who need it, and I do like it for the freedom of movement it brings, but I do not use it to destroy. That would spoil it."  
"You are… still strange. I will wait and follow. I will understand someday."  
"Thank you."  
Wielding the massive sword, Link brought down all four masks in a relatively short time.  
Majora came forward. "You're better than I thought. Those weren't very good players, though. You have to play with me, now."  
"If this is play, why are the stakes for my life or yours?" Link asked.  
Majora ignored this and charged, trailing red ribbons like tentacles.  
Link swung the sword, the demon's strength running through his muscles, and sent blue waves surging towards the mask.  
The mask, taking hits, sprouted arms and legs, striped like the face of the mask. This creatures, while it hurt Link more when it managed to hit him, was a bit more unwieldy. Link hit it with the edge of his blade.  
Instead of shedding a limb, Majora cried out and swelled again, its limbs becoming more bulked out and muscled, and a head popped out of the top. The monster bore hardly any resemblance now to the small mask it had spawned of.  
Link, sweating with exertion, dodged the creature as it attacked him. He ducked right up against it and plunged his helix sword into its chest, between the circles that had been eyes.  
It wailed and flailed grotesquely, staggering backwards as the world exploded in flame…

Link woke up lying on short green grass. He couldn't tell if the sun was shining, since his face was smushed into it, but he guessed that it was since his back was soaking up incorporeal warmth.  
He sat up and rubbed his head, since he found he had a slight ache on the left side. Further investigation revealed that he had a bruise there, but nothing really to worry about.  
Navi bobbed into his view. "About time! I was getting worried. After they pushed the moon back up, and we fell out, you weren't waking up, and I thought it wasn't just because you had a bit of a rough landing…"  
"Wait, wait, wait," Link interrupted his fairy. "We fell out of the moon? Over there?" He pointed across the roofs of South Clock Town to where the faceless moon was setting normally into the western mountains. He shook his head and looked again. "Right. I'm behind the times. What happened? Did we succeed?" His voice was a soprano again, and he blinked at the pale mask clutched in his hand.  
"You bet!" Tatl squealed, joining Navi, with Tael following her. "You killed Majora, and then I think we fell out of the moon, and the giants had just been able to push it back into orbit because we killed him."  
"And then one giant caught you. That's why you only have a small bruise instead of being dead," Tael added.  
"They're still waiting for you to wake up," Navi said. "Look!"  
Link looked, and saw the four giants, standing back from the four sides of Clock Town. The giant of the swamp was very near them, and trembling in front of him was the Skull Kid, looking very dejected and nervous.  
Link couldn't understand what was being said, and neither of his fairies translated for him, but at the end of it, the Skull Kid was not shaking so nervously. He turned to Link and smiled a bit. Link smiled back and waved.  
The Skull Kid hopped closer. "I'm sorry…"  
Link shrugged. "I think I fixed everything, so don't worry."  
They were distracted by a nearby chortle. The Happy Mask Salesman was bending over a purple mask with yellow eyes and spikes.  
"Well, well, it seems the magic has gone from this mask. I suppose that's all right, since I'm just after the mask itself. The magic was a nasty side-effect. Oh, and by the way…" He handed Link a stack of masks, all the ones he had collected. Link's face lit up.  
"Wow! Thanks! Where were these? I thought I'd lost them forever!"  
"They were just scattered around here… and there… and some over there…" said the salesman, gesturing in various directions around Link. The young hero sobered a bit.  
"I guess that means… the spirits of the evil masks are dead."  
"Why is that bad?" Tatl demanded.  
Link smiled at her. "They don't have a second chance now. They showed signs… Everyone deserves a second chance… I think… if they want to change…"  
"Ganondorf didn't want to change," Navi said, voicing Link's mind. "If you had given him a second chance he would have blown it again."  
"I know. But there's someone here who has been given a second chance. Let's talk to him."  
The mask salesman had vanished, off on his journey, but the Skull Kid was still waiting apprehensively.  
"I have somewhere to be in a couple of minutes. Do you want to come?"  
The Skull Kid nodded happily.  
They went to the wedding of Kafei and Anju, near the beach where two fountains played. Kafei was back in an adult form, and he was very handsome all dressed up. Anju was absolutely lovely in her gown. After the ceremony, they kissed each other, and the crowd of guests cheered. They caught a glimpse of him, sitting in a tree with the Skull Kid, and waved. He waved back, laughing.  
Link played games with the lost forest boy all that day. The Hylian himself smiled and laughed as never before since Rana's death.  
At evening, Link and the Skull Kid carved a picture of the two of them on a fallen tree, with the three fairies around them, and went to stay with Cremia and Romani that night. Romani thought the Skull Kid was the cutest thing, and invited him to stay and help on the farm. The Skull Kid was happy. The ranch was also enough like the Lost Woods, being surrounded by trees, that he even felt at home.

Link had found that one of his transformation masks didn't work, the Goron mask, but Navi told him that Darmani had passed on since Link didn't need his help now. Link kept the mask as a souvenir anyway, but set out the next day to see about his other three masks.  
He found the Deku Tree under the clock tower, and after trying several things involving healing fairies and potions, he pressed the Deku mask to the face on the tree.  
The tree shuddered and sprang to life. With a scared squeal, the Deku rushed past him and out the door, heading in the direction of the swamp.  
"Be well," Link murmured after him, and mounted Epona to ride to the beach.  
In the place where Mikau had changed into a mask, Link stopped and took it out.  
He tried again similar things to the mask as he had tried to the tree, although he wasted a potion pouring it through the carved mouth and onto the sand.  
The mask made a face. "Not only does that stuff taste horrible, it didn't do anything. Dude, try the fairy."  
Link grinned. "I like the taste. It's strawberry." He got out a fairy, and it fluttered in circles for a moment before whirling around the mask.  
Link dropped it as it began to quiver, but then it lay still.  
Mike gasped out: "More. It's working."  
Link clasped the mask to his chest as he ran to find a fairy fountain. When he got to the Ocean fairy fountain, he threw the mask into the middle of the fairies.  
They all huddled around it, and there was a blast of light. Link peered through a shielding hand and saw Mikau grow out of the mask, leaning back on his hands in a sitting position.  
The Zora slowly climbed to his feet.  
"Wow."  
He walked towards Link, smiling like he would burst.  
"It's… just incredible. Not many people get a… a reprieve like that. Thank you."  
"No, I've only begun to repay you for your help."  
"You've more than repaid it. Look, Link, I can be just as stubborn in this matter as you. You taught me, anyhow. Want to come to a concert?"  
"Sure! That would be great!"  
"Tonight, if you can get in, then. No, come to the beach and I'll pick you up. You Hylians swim funny, and you'll never get in unless I take you."  
"Thanks."  
Mike left, and Link was alone with his fairy friends… and the Oni mask.  
"Well," said the demon, and turned into the Hylian form he had given Link. "You are… a strange person, but I think I am getting it… You like helping people. It makes you happy."  
"Yes, indeed," said Link and all the fairies, smiling. The tall, handsome demon shifted his weight casually.  
"I'll stay with you until I find out why. I'll even let you call upon my strength when you want it. Don't forget. I may take the form of the mask, but I can always see you."  
Link did come to hear the concert, as promised, and enjoyed it very much, although he was startled when Mike called him up on stage to play his Ocarina. He played all the songs he knew from home, a hint of sadness touching him… he felt a bit homesick now, to see Kokiri Forest, and Saria and Rana… but if he went back…  
A reprieve from death… that was what Mikau had meant. Could he work to give Rana a reprieve from death when he returned? Could he arrive in Hyrule the moment that Zelda took him away to the Sacred Realm to send him home?  
Then he forgot everything, in making his music the most beautiful he could. The Zorans were wonderful accompanists, and Lulu's voice was gorgeous.

Link looked at the sea beyond the Temple in the ocean. Demon was sitting on a log a little behind him, watching him. "You want to go there?"  
Link had explained his story to him. "Yes. There will be new lands… and I will be back before Rana dies. I will."  
With Demon's help, Link was sailing a small ship out onto the sea a short time later.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Link stirred groggily. His mind was made of fuzz, it seemed. He could feel it. An arm twitched, feeling for a missing rudder.  
What? Rudder?  
Where was Navi?  
He tried to remember…  
Memories were flitting in front of his mind's eye. Sending Epona home… building a ship… Not very big, only big enough for himself and… Demon… yes.  
Setting sail, visiting different islands, having hectic times and good times… just he couldn't remember them yet…  
Two years had passed since he had set out from Termina's Great Bay, and he'd had many adventures… so how was it that he was in a comfortable bed that wasn't rocking? The blankets were warm and soft…  
Not like that storm… right. A hurricane had hit. "I'm going to reef!" Link had yelled to Demon, giving him the tiller and clambering to the mast, clinging like a monkey to anything he could. He grabbed a rope and wrapped it around his right arm for safety. The rest of his memory was a blank…  
"Ah! Are you waking up, sir?"  
"Uhn?" Who was the girl? Malon? His eyelids cracked open, showing him brownish red hair and a blue dress. "Uhn?" he mumbled again.  
He flung himself upright into a sitting position, his pulse going about a hundred kilometres an hour. "Where's Navi? Where am I? Who are you? Are you Malon? You look different. Where am I?"  
The girl stepped back, laughing. "Whoa, traveller. I'm Marin, not Malon. I don't know a Malon. You're on Koholint Island. What was your other question?"  
"Where's Navi?"  
"Who's Navi?"  
"She's my… fairy… I guess she's not here. Why am I here?"  
"My little girl found you on the beach!" said a deeper, jolly voice. Link looked over to a little table where a man who looked an awful lot like Talon sat, fiddling with a pipe.  
"Eh? What beach?"  
The man chuckled. "Of course you were found on a beach; we're an island!"  
"Okay. I think I'm getting it… so I washed up here?"  
"Were you in a shipwreck?" Marin asked excitedly. "We've never had anyone wash up before. What's your name?"  
"Link, and I'm not sure what happened. I was on my ship with my friends in a hurricane and I went to reef and then I'm not sure what happened. I need to go look for them…"  
"I'll show you the way," Marin volunteered. "Here's your shield. It was strapped to your back, and it looked uncomfortable and dirty. I cleaned it." Link buckled both his belts on and checked his appearance. Since he had left Termina, he had donned a brown sweater under his green tunic and shorts, bought new boots out of necessity, and let his hair grow a bit longer, and he was definitely much taller. The shield on its cross-strap made him feel comfortable, even if the comforting weight of his sword was missing.  
"I'm going to the forest," Tarin called, as they left his house, sauntering in a different direction than the boy and the girl.  
"This way," Marin said, skipping ahead of Link.  
Link looked around. The village reminded him somewhat of Kakariko – laid back, contented, cheerful… he could see an elderly woman sweeping her porch, and three identical boys playing ball while another identical boy egged them on…  
"Whoa!" Link started back as an enormous black dog lunged at him.  
"That's Bow-Wow. He doesn't hurt people, but he's death on the little monsters we find around occasionally! Little blobby things and stuff."  
Fortunately, it was chained to a post, but Link edged carefully past the dog as he followed Marin.  
Marin led him past a building with a sign: "Library" and to the top of a steep drop. Link stopped for a moment and looked out at the horizon. The sky was blue, and the sea was calm. It was a beautiful sight, but no ships broke the smooth sheet of water.  
"What are you waiting for?" Marin asked, turning back from where she had slid down a short incline in her sandals. "We have to find your friends!"  
"Sorry." Link followed her, although he saw some wooden stairs nearby.  
The beach was made of fine sand, with palm nuts everywhere. There was flotsam and jetsam everywhere. The two made their way slowly along. Link was looking for anything that gleamed – it could be a fairy. He was also looking for Demon, but if the spirit was unconscious or tired he would be in the shape of a mask, meditating, and be harder to find. Link checked under every pile of seaweed or driftwood he came across.  
Something glittering caught his eye at the same time that Marin said: "What's that?"  
Link raced forward and found something long and sharp. "Well, it's not as good as I'd like, but it's good." He picked up his sword and sheathed it. "Now I'm not defenceless."  
"Oh, it's okay!" Marin assured him. "I hardly ever see monsters, and they never bother me. They only bothered people a long, long time ago…"  
"Looks like there's some right here," Link said grimly, whipping out his sword and facing the small band of Moblins coming from around a corner in the cliff face. "Stay behind me!" Marin ducked back in a whirl of skirts.  
Link charged at the monsters as they charged at him. He was taller, stronger, bigger, and faster than ever, and the fifteen year old was confident in his monster destroying abilities, although he hadn't truly used them for some time. He dodged the spears and leapt high in the air, stabbing downwards. He got scratched on the arm, and wished he had a fairy friend with him to help him concentrate on his targets.  
"Kill him! He'll destroy the island!" came a shout from the top of the cliff. Link looked up and saw another, bigger Moblin. The Hylian had killed one of the four, but the other three were putting up a good fight. Link kicked one and stabbed another and slashed the third across the face, trying to finish faster than ever so he could go against the Moblin above.  
A few minutes later, he had succeeded, and threw himself at the cliff, clawing his way up. "Marin! Go back home and stay there! I'll be back! Be careful!"  
Marin squealed anxiously, but Link caught a glimpse of her dashing towards the town as he pursued the Moblin fleeing through the trees.  
They came to a cave, and they both dove in without stopping. Link chased his opponent through chambers, jumped over chasms, and fought off other enemies.  
At the end of the cave, he finally brought the Moblin to bay and killed him. Only then did he look around.  
The cave was lit with torches, and from the accessories lying around… Link had blundered into a dungeon! The dead end he had come into had a huge door in one wall, and a tiny little keyhole in the centre.  
Link blew a sigh. "Only one thing for it." He was going to have to go back and explore the dungeon all over again. He was partly excited – exploring dungeons on his first day in a new place suited him just fine. It made him feel welcome somehow.

Two hours later, he exited with a small cello in his hands. The instrument seemed to play if he only shook it, so he handled it carefully.  
"Hoo!" something hooted behind him.  
Link jumped, squawking in fright, and relaxed as he saw it was an owl. "Hey! What do you mean, scaring people like that?"  
"I apologize. I want to talk to you, young hero."  
"Are you Kaepora Gaebora?" Kaepora Gaebora was a venerable owl who lived in the Kokiri Forest. He had offered Link advice on occasion, and hobnobbed greatly with the Wise Brothers. Link wondered what he could be doing here, but…  
"No. I don't know what you are talking about. That, what you hold there, is the Full Moon Cello. There are seven other instruments."  
"I have to gather them all?"  
"Only if you wish to leave this island."  
"What!?"  
"The Wind Fish sleeps, now, but if you play the eight collected Instruments of the Sirens before his egg, he will awaken and take you away to where you wish to be."  
"I don't get it."  
The owl sighed. "You will find it impossible to leave the island without waking the Wind Fish."  
Link turned away, chanting: "Drat, drat, drat, drat…"  
Marin was preparing supper in her house as he entered; something with chicken in it. She looked up and smiled, relieved greatly.  
"I was so scared! I've never seen that happen before! It must be a weird fluke."  
"I don't know," Link answered. "Smells good."  
"I'm also worried about Daddy. He's never been out this long!"  
"Oh, I'll go look for him. How long do I have?"  
"Until supper is ready?" Marin giggled a bit. "Fifteen minutes. The forest is to the north of the town."  
"Great. Thanks."  
Link set the cello down on a side-table as he left the house again.  
From there, he went to the forest, and did not find Tarin, but he found Moblins and and a fairy and a raccoon. He got lost several times, but was eventually saved by the lights of the town.  
Marin was terrified when he told her this, and supper was a silent meal.  
When Link finished, he went out again, even though it was dark. He stopped first at the shop to see if he could buy anything that could help him, since he had nothing in his pockets or his pouch. He bought bombs and something called 'magic powder', which he'd never seen before.  
He went back to the forest, which was getting dark, and threw magic powder at the first monster he saw. It burst into flame.  
"Cool," Link said, having no dutiful little fairy around to reprimand him, and threw some at the raccoon.  
The raccoon did not burst into flame, but it began to bounce. It bounced off trees and rocks, squeaking "ouch, ouch, ouch" all the time. It swelled, and the voice deepened, until Tarin sat down under a tree.  
"What happened?" asked the big man. "I just picked a mushroom, and then my mind went blank… What? It's dark already? Ohmigosh, my daughter's going to kill me!" Tarin ran off flailing.  
"This all seems very familiar," Link said to himself, following. Talon had once run away from Malon in a similar fashion, and Malon had told him afterwards a very similar conversation to the one he had just heard…  
When he got back, Marin and Tarin were staring at his cello. "What's the matter?"  
"Where did you find this?" Marin stammered. "It's… the Full Moon Cello!"  
"I found it in a dungeon, in a cave near the beach. Can you tell me what it is? An owl tried to explain, but I didn't get it too well."  
"Well, the Full Moon Cello is one of the eight legendary Sirens' Instruments. They were hidden all over the island by the god who made Koholint, and it's said that the one who finds them all and plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish before the Wind Fish's Egg will wake the Wind Fish. The Wind Fish is the god who made Koholint, but he went to sleep inside a giant egg at the peak of the mountain in the centre of the island."  
"So, what happens after that? The owl said I could only go home if I did that."  
"No one knows," Tarin rumbled. "I don't know if it's true. You could ask Mr. Write; he lives up north past the forest. I think he tried to leave the island once to deliver a letter. He writes letters to all kinds of people; that's why we call him Mr. Write. Nowadays, he just gets the seagulls to carry them."  
"Did he ever get any answers?" Link asked.  
"No. We think it's because we're too far away from other lands, or even from sailing routes to other lands. But we don't mind. We're a good community, Mabe and Animal Villages, and monsters don't bother us."  
"I think I cleaned them out of the forest, but I'll check again tomorrow. I'm not going anywhere just yet. I'm sure my friends are still in the boat, wondering where I am, so I'll wait a bit to get all those instruments. What's that song you mentioned, by the way?"  
"It's called the Ballad of the Wind Fish," Marin reminded him, blushing, and stood up and sang a beautiful song without words. Link gazed at her with his mouth hanging open. Marin was probably the equal of Lulu the Zora singer in voice power…  
When she finished, Marin blushed again and said: "It sounds better outside in the sunshine. That's my favourite place to sing it. Good night!" She hurried off to her room.  
Link stared after her.  
Tarin stood up and stretched. "Night, Link. I'm sleeping in this room, but you can sleep on the couch here. I've left some blankets and pillows for you. Night!"  
"Good night!" Link called, loudly enough to be heard by Marin.  
He flopped on the couch and fell asleep instantly.

The next day, he got up and went outside before breakfast. Everything was quiet.  
He went back inside. Marin was cooking breakfast, and Tarin was chewing on his pipe.  
"She doesn't let me smoke indoors," he explained to Link. "Says it smells bad."  
"Hm. After I check the forest, do you want to introduce me to your neighbours?"  
"Sure!" Marin chirped, flipping a pancake and smiling – and blushing – at Link at the same time.  
"Great."  
After breakfast, Link went to the forest and discovered that the monsters were not gone, but he couldn't find their next base. When he got back, the four little boys with the ball rushed up to him.  
"Hey, mister! Mister Link! You gotta help, really!"  
"It's an emergancy! It's really bad!"  
"The M-m-moblins came!"  
"What?" Link knelt down to their level.  
"And they went all around, and we all hid, and they went to that house, and that house!"  
"But we don't know what they did!"  
"Yeah, we do! I think they stole Bow-Wow!"  
"The dog?" Link asked, looking over at the house and noting the absence of large and ferocious black animals.  
"Yeah!"  
"Please, mister Link! You gotta save him!"  
"How…"  
"Please!"  
Link stood up. There was nothing more he was going to get out of the kids, and he still was mystified as to how even the Moblins had carried off the fierce animal. He had heard no trace of them in the woods, either, but set off northwards.  
He came across their trail right away. It curved around to the northeast, and past a noisome swamp full of Deku Babas and fish with large teeth.  
"Not many monsters here?"  
Link wondered again.  
The trail grew more difficult as the ground grew harder again as he got closer to the central mountain. At last it led into a hole in the ground.  
After being accused of being an assassin and, admittedly, killing all the Moblins in the cave, he left with the dog. It was muzzled, but the muzzle had Moblin blood on it, so his guess that the Moblins had not found it as easy as the children thought was proved. Bow-Wow frisked around and licked his face, almost knocking him over constantly. It was a long walk back.  
Madam Meow-Meow, the dog's owner, was estatic to see her "precious puppy" back, and gave Link a big hug and kiss before he could get away.  
"And you come by and walk my poor doggie anytime you like!" she added, with a wink.  
Link returned to Marin's house. The girl was singing as she swept the path to the door. "Hi!" she called as she caught sight of him. "I guess you returned the dog. Do you want to meet everyone else, now?"  
"Sure, but could we have lunch first?"  
"Oh, right, yes. Come in."  
After lunch, she led him slightly to the north, past a small ornamental windmill. The house behind, on a little hill, was where the quadruplet boys lived. They ran out and swarmed around Link, clapping their hands.  
"You saved Bow-wow, didn't you?"  
"You're great, Mister Link!"  
"You can just call me Link," the Hylian replied cheerfully. "What are your names?"  
"I'm Ben, he's Mack, that's Tim, and that's Stu."  
"If you can't tell us apart, you can call 'us' Stutimmackben and we'll answer."  
"Don't you try wearing different shirts?"  
"No, because we switch to fool Mom and she got frustrated."  
"Now we wear whatever."  
"Yes," Marin said, "they're a handful, sure enough. They like running around a lot. Why don't you show us what you can do with that sword?"  
"Uh…" Link hesitated, looking around for something to attack that wouldn't hurt anyone. "Is it all right if I attack that fence post? I might break it…"  
"Don't worry about that!" said a tall man, coming and sitting in the doorway. His wife stood behind him with a baby in her arms. "I'm Papahl, by the way, and this is Mahria. The baby's Flo. She's the only girl! But, I'm sure she'd love to see you, too."  
"I'll fix it if I really smash it," Link said, drawing his sword. He wished Navi were there to help him focus, but did his best to show some of his flashier moves.  
There was a small burst of applause when he finished, panting, the fence post cut and sliced almost disreputably, and Link grinned apologetically at the quadruplets' parents.  
After a generous display of hospitality from Papahl and Mahria that included a welcome drink of milk for Link and a cookie for each of the boys, Marin took Link over to the two shops, introducing him to the shifty looking market owner and the nervous game store operator. Then, over to the elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Ulrira. Mrs. Ulrira was vigourously sweeping her whole yard, and reminded Marin loudly but cheerfully that Mr. Ulrira was very shy in person; would they please use the phone?  
On the phone, Mr. Ulrira was gruff and loud. Marin laughed at the bemused expression on Link's face.  
Next was Madam Meow-Meow's house, with its huge dog and two little puppies. One puppy was a boy, and the other was a girl. The girl kept snapping at a shiny bracelet Marin wore until she gave it to her, and then the puppy whined with happiness and tried to put the bracelet on its tail. Marin bent down and put the bracelet on the dog's paw, tightening the clasp just enough that it wouldn't fall off.  
Meanwhile, Link was getting smothered by the woman.  
As soon as they were able to leave, Marin took Link just to show him the library. Link grinned at the piles of books. He loved books, ever since he found out what they were. They told him all kinds of fascinating things, and sometimes less fascinating things as well. He found one: "Fun With Bombs", that hardly told him anything interesting that he already knew. It was a pretty small book. Some of the others looked more promising, with fairy stories and legends in them.  
At length, it was suppertime, and after that, Link and Marin and Tarin talked about the Cello until it was dark out.  
The next day, Link went out with the big dog and ventured north again. He had an idea about the slimy-looking swamp he had passed.  
His guess was correct, and he was rewarded with a horn made out of a spiralled seashell. He brought it back to Marin's house, and was rewarded again when both father and daughter's eyes lit up with wonder.  
"That's the Conch Horn!" Marin exclaimed.  
"I kinda guessed that," Link grinned as he set it on the table next to the Full Moon Cello.  
"Well, that's its name. I should have taken that book out… The one about the history of the island."  
"Well, there's always tomorrow."  
"But tomorrow, I'm going to take you to meet someone else!"  
"Oh? Who?"  
"Well, you'll meet him when you meet him. And then there're other people, too."  
"Oh, all right."  
Tarin chuckled. "My girl's a good talker, ain't she?"  
Link grinned again, ruefully. "Yes, she is."  
Marin rolled her eyes with an impatient sigh. "Just because I want you make your own first impressions?" And she stalked off to bed.

The day dawned bright and sunny, and Link was up early. Not as early as Marin, though. She had already gone out and brought back several books from the library, and had re-read them all half-way through the morning, while Link was still on the first one. Then she jumped up.  
"C'mon, you can read those later. We have to go and see Richard now, otherwise there won't be time to go to the other village."  
"Other village?"  
Marin smiled and ran out the door.  
"Wha-? Hey, wait!"  
Link ran after her.  
Outside of Mabe Village, there was a small rock fall, and after that were small land-Octoroks. Marin was confused and stuck close to Link, leading him along a grassy path south.  
The path wound around to the east, and then north, leading eventually to a small, beautiful old castle. Marin rang the doorbell by the gate. Link looked up.  
"Look out!" he shouted suddenly, grabbing Marin around the waist and pulling her back. A large rock thudded into the chipped paving stones where she had been standing. Marin looked up in fear, and gasped. A helmeted head was peering over the battlements.  
"You again, wench?"  
"Wh-where is Richard?" Marin cried.  
"Don't know. Don't care. Go away and take that stupid hero with you."  
Marin's eyes were wide with shock, and she turned around and began walking away slowly, skirts flapping in the breeze.  
"Hey! Wait! One of my buddies says he's moved into a little frog-filled house somewhere south of the pond. Okay?"  
"O-okay."  
"What was that all about?" Link asked as they went out of bow-shot of the walls.  
"I don't know! They've never been like that before. I hope Richard's all right. I mean, he's… but he's…"  
"You're confusing me," Link cried, throwing his arms out wide. Marin giggled.  
"Sorry. Is that the house?"  
She ran forward, heedless of danger, and knocked on the door. A young man with styled black hair and a small elegant moustache answered it.  
"Yes? Oh, hello, Marin. Who is this?"  
"This is Link! He just arrived on the island, and I'm showing him around. What happened up at the castle?"  
Richard invited them inside and served them tea. "I'm afraid I am just as confused as you are. Suddenly, yesterday, my servants revolted against me. They threw me out of the castle, and I didn't even have time to pack. I don't even have my Golden Leaves!" A frog croaked mournfully from inside an empty pitcher. Richard dumped it out impatiently.  
"What are gold leaves?" Link asked.  
"Golden Leaves," Richard corrected the Hylian, still impatiently. "They are a symbol of my status as lord of the castle. I refuse to leave them in the hands of those ruffians. As such, I am most distressed."  
"Er, well…" Marin began.  
"I might…" Link began at the same time. They looked at each other, blushed, and then Link started again. "I could go and get them for you. Where are they?"  
"Oh, you would? I see you have a sword. You must be an excellent warrior, by the look of your physique. The Golden Leaves are on my dresser, although they may have been moved. There is also a back way into the castle. If you will, I could show you the entrance."  
"That would be very helpful," Link said. "Marin, if I take an hour or maybe a little more, will we still have time to visit that other village you talked of?"  
"Well, we will certainly have time to get there and back, but I don't know if we will be able to have enough time to visit, you see…"  
"Oh. Well, tell me the way, and I'll catch up later."  
"It's across the river, directly east of here."  
"All right."  
Link set out with Richard and Marin, and Richard showed him a tiny, grimy staircase into the back of the castle. Link went in and found a broken ladder to get out into the castle grounds. He jumped for it.  
After at least an hour and a half, he had found all five of the Leaves, none of which were on the dresser in the master bedroom, and had managed to open the gate for a quick exit. The guards were not brilliant fighters, so he took them by surprise, knocked them out, and left them where they lay.  
He jogged east to find the village, but instead…  
Marin and Richard were standing by the river. Marin was surveying the wreckage of a wooden bridge, and Richard had drawn a rapier and was trying to fence with a small octorok. His success was minimal.  
Link came up to them. "Were you waiting all this time?"  
"Well," Marin said, "if we didn't, you might think we had gotten across somehow, and then you might drown trying to cross also."  
"Oh."  
"Fear not, friends!" cried Richard. "I have slain the foul beast! Did you get my Golden Leaves back?"  
"Yes," and Link handed them to him.  
"Well, we'd better go home," Marin said. "Thanks for your help, Richard."  
"Come back tomorrow!" Richard invited them. "I have something else to tell you."  
The next day, Marin was busy helping Mrs. Ulrira, so Link and Tarin went.  
"The thing I have for you is a large, oddly decorated key. I found it when I took this house, and I am not sure where it goes. Perhaps you would know."  
"How would I know?" Link asked.  
"There are strange keyholes scattered over the island, I am told. However, I have not personally gone to visit them all, certainly not with the recent kerfuffle. Would you take this and try some?"  
Link shrugged and accepted it.  
It fit into a keyhole in a rock very close to Richard's house, and Link rolled his eyes. Tarin was stuck back at the house, still drinking tea.  
The keyhole opened another dungeon, which Link defeated before suppertime. The instrument in that one was a bell, and he added it to the growing pile on the living room table.  
"That's the Sea Lily Bell," Marin told him. "It's in…"  
"I still haven't finished reading this book about the Wind Fish," Link protested.  
"All right, don't worry about it, then."  
After a while, during supper, Marin glanced at her father and then at Link. "Um, I had an idea. Would you like to go out tomorrow? I want to go down to the beach again, and you could spend the day reading…"  
"Like a picnic?" Tarin asked.  
"Yes, exactly."

The next day, Marin took a huge basket of food and other things, and Link filled his cleaned pack with books, and Tarin brought chairs and umbrellas, and they all went down to the beach. They set up a blanket on a grassy lawn so grit didn't get in the food, but the chairs and umbrellas went down on the sand.  
True to the size of her basket, Marin had prepared almost a feast, and Link was nearly over-full when they finished. He flopped on the blanket, grinning ruefully, and reached for a book about Kanelet Castle.  
Marin waited until she was sure he was fully absorbed, and went to her private spot and sang for the seagulls.  
Link finished that book and felt like taking a break, and lay staring up at the changing clouds. Tarin was smoking under his umbrella with his feet in the water.  
Marin came back and Link sat up.  
"Hey, Marin, did I tell you where I came from yet?"  
"Oh, no. Would you? You're an amazing fighter, and you're so strange, and yet everyone here likes you and you fit in perfectly…"  
"Oh. I didn't know that. I'm kinda glad that you haven't had trouble with monsters before I came, though. I wonder why they're acting up. Anyway…"  
In a hesitating, round-about fashion, he managed to explain what Hyrule was, and who he was there. Tarin came over to listen. Link was just in the middle of a rousing rendition of how he had fought Ganondorf when he stopped suddenly, and Marin saw his face change colour.  
"Are you okay?"  
"Uh, sorry. Just, after I killed him, my best friend died, so I don't like talking about that part."  
"I'm sorry about that. I understand."  
"Daddy, what's that you have?"  
"It's a flute of some sort…"  
"Can I see?" Link held out his hand, and Tarin placed the Ocarina of Time into it. Link's eyes went very wide. "How did this get here?"  
"It was in a wooden bowl thing. Is it yours?"  
"Yes… This is the Ocarina that was so important during that quest. I hope the others are all right…"  
"How many others are there?"  
"Oh, right." And Link told them about his adventures in Termina and how he met Tatl and Demon and Tael.  
"Well, this Demon person sounds competent, and if he has three fairies with him, he should be all right," Tarin said.  
"Yes… but if he fell in the ocean… if he's stuck in a place where he can't change… I don't know… he might be stuck underwater forever… The fairies will be all right, but what if they get lost? What if I never find them again?"  
"Please don't despair yet," Marin pleaded. "It's not good for you, and I don't think it's true. Perhaps they can't find the island. When you are able to leave, you will probably find them quickly."  
Link shrugged. "Maybe. Anyway, having the Ocarina makes me feel better, although I don't know why."  
"You know it's safe," Tarin said. "I'm never sure if things are safe unless I've got my eye on them."  
"I suppose, yeah."  
Link lay awake that night, wondering.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next day, Link went to the shop and bought a bow. It wasn't as good as his old one, but it would do until he could find or make a better one. Thus armed, he went exploring to the east past Kanelet Castle, scouting out the land to see if he could get to the mysterious village Marin had hinted about. The river flowed deep and fast, and he hesitated to dive in.  
He found a cave, and it didn't smell like monsters, and no monster noises came out of it, so he went in with a makeshift torch he had fashioned out of wood and old cloth and magic powder. The tunnel got very tight at one point, and he could hear water trickling all around him, but it was not a dead end. The exit put him on the other side of the river, and Link smiled.  
"I wonder if I could make an easier way for Marin to cross," he wondered out loud. "Well, at least there is one safe-ish way."  
He set off on the well-travelled path south, and it soon bent to the left. There was a large sign overhanging the road that said 'Animal Village'.  
Link blinked at the sign and stepped forward.  
Five white rabbits, a blue baby bear, and a small raven rushed up to him, and stopped, their faces showing disappointment.  
"…" Link stared at them. He had met talking monkeys, but never talking rabbits… if they could talk. "…Hello?"  
Two rabbits turned back to him and smiled politely. "I'm sorry, stranger. We thought Little Marin had come."  
"Oh. I'm a friend of Marin. I just arrived on the island. She was going to come, but the bridge is gone."  
"Yes, monsters got it. I don't know where they came from! Anyway, what's your name?"  
"I'm Link."  
"Pleased to meet you. Are you a swordfighter?"  
"Yes, I am."  
"Wow! We've never met a swordfighter before."  
"There are supposed to be swordfighters at the castle, but we never bothered going, and they didn't bother coming."  
"Oh, didn't you know?" Link gave them all the news he could think of. Meanwhile, the animals were showing him around their village in much the same way Marin had showed him hers. The baby bear introduced him to his father, a gourmet chef, and Link met an artist who was a crocodile, and a goat who was writing a letter and was very annoyed at being disturbed, muttering something about etiquette.  
Soon, the animals and Link were right at home with each other, and he found himself playing with them as if he were ten years younger. He had a lot of fun that day, and decided to fix that bridge as soon as he could.  
On the way back, he was pursued and attacked by a small swarm of monsters, not just Moblins but little Octoroks and Moldorms as well. He stopped heading west and turned north, leading them away from the villages, before turning to counterattack. He took out two of three Moblins, and almost all the Moldorms, when an arrow pierced his left shoulder from behind. Clenching his teeth, he whirled, ducked, and plunged forward into the darkness to kill the extra Moblin with the bow. His sword was difficult to hold.  
Weary, but triumphant, he arrived home with no further mishaps.  
The family was already in bed, but as he closed the door as quietly as he could, he heard a tiny squeak and looked up to see Marin's door slowly opening and a pair of pretty brown eyes peering out at him.  
"Is that you, Link? Why did you stay out so late?"  
"Er… I ran into trouble on the way home." They were whispering so as not to wake Tarin.  
"Trouble? Oh! You're hurt!"  
"It's not much. I can fix it."  
"Let me help you."  
Link turned his shoulder towards her. "Just pull it out. It's at a terrible angle for me."  
"Just pull?" Marin took hold of the arrow shaft nervously.  
"Pull hard."  
He heard her suck in her breath and felt her brace her hand against his back. Pain raced down his arm and she wrenched the arrow out of his shoulder.  
Link sagged in relief, although his shoulder was throbbing even worse now. It could be bandaged and anaesthetized. After he took his shirt off, Marin made him sit still and did it all for him, and her cool hands relaxed him as she wound strips of cloth around his arm.  
When she was done, he smiled at her, and lay down on his bed, the couch, curling up like a small child. He didn't even hear her close her door again.  
He slept late the next morning, but as soon as his consciousness was awake enough to know the difference, his eyes opened with a start, and he jumped up excitedly.  
"Where's Marin?" he asked Tarin. "I found a way to get to Animal Village, and I want to surprise her with it."  
"She's down at the beach, as usual."  
Link ran down to the beach after hardly a bite of food, and followed the sound of beautiful singing.  
He came across her in a little cove, stretching her arms to the seagulls. She heard his footsteps and turned, startled. At first her eyes were frightened, but when she saw it was him, she relaxed and smiled.  
"Does your shoulder hurt today?"  
"No, it's fine. I'm going to go find a Great Fairy sometime. There are some around; I've seen their pools. What are you doing here?"  
"I'm just singing… I like to sit here and wonder… Do you know, I…"  
Link sat down on a log, and Marin sat close beside him, looking down at her hands in her lap.  
"When you came… I was so excited…"  
"I thought, 'this person has come to give us a message!'"  
"I… I've never been away from Koholint…"  
"You haven't suffered from it," Link blurted out, staring at her, instantly blushing.  
Marin blushed too and looked out at the sea, away from him. "I-I always wondered what it would be like to be a seagull and fly to far distant lands… I once wished I could fly away and sing for many people… You know?"  
"… yes…"  
"I'm glad you came. We've never known anyone like you…"  
"I've never known anyone quite like you, either… Rana was fun, and Saria was gentle, and the Princess was beautiful, but you're –" Link stopped before saying 'all three'.  
Marin jumped up, flustered. "I don' t know what you're talking about."  
"Actually, you're a lot like my friend Malon, who looks a bit like you, too. Except she doesn't sing Ballad of the Finned Wish… um, Wind Fish…"  
"Are you sure your shoulder doesn't hurt?"  
"No, I… I'm happy about something, and I want to show it to you!"  
"What?"  
"Come with me," and Link set off, looking back at her. Her face was pink as she followed him.  
He led her to close to the river after asking a fairy to heal him, and showed her the cave. "Do you know where this goes?"  
"No…"  
He took her to the river and showed her what he had done the day before – he had made a sort of rope bridge out of two ropes – one to stand on, and one to hold on to.  
"Do you want to walk across yourself, or shall I carry you?"  
"Er… ah, I'll go by myself. Did you do this?"  
"Yes, yesterday. Just a minute…"  
When they were both across, he showed her the other cave entrance. "If the bridge breaks for any reason, you can get under the river like this. It's a bit dark, dirty, and narrow, though… so…"  
"Wow! I never knew about that. You see so much."  
"It's… my job, partly."  
Marin skipped and twirled, and ran ahead to the village, where she was mobbed by happy animals. "It's Little Marin! Sing us a song!"  
"All right, already! Sit down, and I will."  
Link sat down near the back, since he was the biggest, and listened to Marin's lovely voice and her lovely favourite song, "Ballad of the Wind Fish", and other songs, too.  
After a while, they started talking about him, and Marin mentioned that he was an adventurer, and explained about that. The little raven hopped up and down.  
"Hang on a second! I found something weird in the desert once. Maybe he knows what it is!" And it brought him a fish-shaped key.  
"I guess it's the key to another dungeon," Link said, after glancing at it once.  
"Ooh, are you going to go and fight it?"  
"I suppose… Can I keep it?"  
"Yeah! Keep it and beat the monsters!"  
"Okay, I will." Link smiled.  
They returned to Mabe Village that night, together, and the next day, they went back to Animal Village yet again. This time, Link stayed only for a few minutes to hear Marin sing a song and to say hello to the residents, and then he left to find where the key went.  
It was a long hard trek uphill towards the centre of the island, towards the central mountain, but at least, Link thought, it wasn't through jungle. His path was a rocky, dry one, with smaller, tougher, grey-skinned Moblins trying to stop him.  
He found the dungeon entrance at about lunch-time, which was intensely fast, and after a sandwich, he dove in.  
He came to the end of it in a couple of hours. He was weary, but not as hot and sweaty as usual, as the dungeon was half-underwater, and the largest, final monster was in a deep, black, cold pool. He didn't trust the water, though, and drank only from his bottle to keep himself hydrated.  
The Sirens' Instrument he found was a lovely carved harp, with a beautiful ringing sound when he so much as let wind blow through it. He even blew through the strings on purpose to hear it more. Then he tucked it under his arm – wishing that his fairy were there to take it and protect the delicate thing from damage – and left.  
Marin was still in the Animal Village when he returned, which relieved him: it was getting late, and he was concerned about her safety if she returned alone. She smiled at the harp, and tried to play it, but though the notes she played were pretty, they had no coherent meaning.  
Suddenly, Link checked behind himself.  
"What is it?"  
"Uh… Nothing…"  
They returned to Mabe Village, but Link kept having the feeling that he was being watched, but when he closed his eyes and listened, he could sense no living creatures other than Marin and drowsy birds close by. They continued, with the girl giving him confused looks every once in a while  
Then he heard a sigh, and it didn't come from Marin. It wasn't another human, or a Moblin either… Link's skin prickled all over, and he quickened his pace.  
"What was that?" Marin asked.  
"You heard it?"  
"Yes."  
"I don't know. Let's get home."  
She nodded, and they almost ran to Mabe Village.  
Once they were inside Tarin's house, where he had prepared mushroom stew for them, they relaxed a bit.  
Sitting in front of the fire – night was cool, even in summer – after supper, Link glanced around, frowning, and rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know… I just have this feeling that something's not right, but it's not threatening…"  
"I'm… I feel…"  
"I have the Triforce of Courage, which makes me fearless against any physical danger… but I still get creeped out by things I can't see or understand…" Link got up and looked out the window. "It's annoying me. This doesn't normally happen."  
"No, I'd say not," Marin agreed, huddling into a little ball on the hearth.  
"…Please… Help… me…"  
Link jumped and whirled. "Who are you?!"  
"I… am… lost…"  
Link resisted the urge to roll his eyes.  
"What do you need help with? Where do you want to go?" Marin asked, looking everywhere, and actually relaxing. Link stared at her.  
"…Home… You…"  
A dim, pale shape was coalescing in the middle of the living room. Link calmed a bit now that he could see it. It turned towards him.  
"You… are a… fine… young man…"  
"Thank you," said Link uncertainly.  
"Today… I will… stay with… you. Tomorrow… we… can… go."  
"All right," Link replied.  
"Is your home close?" asked Marin.  
"Yes…"  
"What's your name?"  
The ghost put its face close to Link's ear and whispered a name that sent a tingle through Link, though he couldn't say why.  
Marin looked at his wide eyes and epiphanic face, but decided not to ask. She rose.  
"Goodnight, everyone."  
Link shook himself out of his reverie. "Goodnight, Marin."  
The ghost faded away, but Link knew it was still there, motionless. He curled up on the couch and tried to get comfortable in his mind as well as his body.  
Where had he heard that name before?

The next morning, he set out with Marin to find the ghost's house, and they found it at almost suppertime – on the edge of Martha's Bay, a tiny little crumbling building. It was difficult to see in the daylight the faint pale glimmer that was the spirit, but inside it became stronger and something almost like a face began to form as it looked around. It looked almost like a Hylian as it glanced at the bed, and the mouldy table.  
"This is the place," the spirit said happily. "It brings back memories, doesn't it?"  
"What?" Link said without thinking. Marin elbowed him.  
"I love this little house…"  
Marin smiled at it.  
"I must leave now." It turned to him, becoming indistinct again. "For you… something… under… the bed…"  
Link knelt down and scrabbled a bit in the dust, coming out with a new, large shield. It resembled the Gerudo Mirror shield he had left behind in the future, but without the design on its face.  
"I… hope… it helps… you… in your quest…"  
"Thank you," Link said.  
"And… Martha has… what you seek."  
Link looked at Marin, and she made a sign that meant 'later'.  
They left the house and Marin led Link to the graveyard. Alone, in a separate plot, there was a small gravestone with the Triforce on it. Link blinked at it and looked at Marin.  
"Well, I don't know what it is," Marin told him. "It's just three triangles."  
"It's the Triforce."  
"What's a Triforce?"  
The ghost turned to them, not seeming to notice their discussion.  
"…Thank… you. …I can… rest now." It turned to the grave, and for the briefest of instants, it looked like a person again. Link cried out, but the spirit was gone.  
"Who was that?" Link asked.  
"It was…" Marin read the name on the grave. "But I don't know why you would be reacting that way."  
"Neither do I. That's why I'm asking. Anyway, the Triforce is…"  
Link explained on the way home a little more about his homeland, and Marin was properly impressed by the mark on his left hand. Her innocent admiration warmed Link's heart and embarrassed him.

The next day, over breakfast, Link asked: "So, who is Martha?"  
"Oh, right!" Marin exclaimed. "I forgot all about her. She's the mermaid in the bay. She's named after her grandmother, who's named after some ancestor. The bay is also named after that ancestor. I guess she must have been very beautiful or something."  
"Oh. Does she have something that I seek? Like an Instrument or something?"  
"Oh, no, Martha doesn't have an Instrument. But we can go ask her about it."  
She led him in the direction of Animal Village, but turned south before they reached the river. At the edge of a huge blue lagoon, she pointed to a round rock just above the water near to them. "Martha usually likes to sit there. I guess we wait until she shows up."  
"Oh, hi, honey," sang a very happy voice. "Looking for me?"  
"Martha!" cried Marin. "Yes, we are. This is Link. He's a hero."  
"Sweet," answered the wavy black-haired, black-eyed mermaid. "In two senses of the word. Could he help poor little me out?"  
"Why, what's wrong?" said both legged persons.  
Martha winked and turned on her back. "Well, I'm swimming along, minding my own business, when a bunch of little fat fish with sharp teeth start trying to bite me! They didn't get me, of course."  
"Well, but that's…" Marin's voice died away as she remembered the land monsters actions. "It's just a couple of fish…"  
Well, honey, it seems like the cavern in the middle of the bay is off limits to nice folks. There are other things than little fat fish in these waters now. Unless, of course, handsome wants to come and purge them or something."  
"Yes, I will," Link said suddenly. "Is there an Instrument of the Sirens in the cavern?"  
"Bless you, he doesn't waste time, does he? I don't know. The Wind Marimba is supposed to be around here somewhere, but in there?" She thought. "I guess that would make sense, although we never thought about it… at least, I didn't."  
"Go on ahead to Animal Village, Marin," said Link, wading into the water. "I'll be back soon."  
He followed Martha to the middle of the bay. She swam butterfly, he swam sidestroke as he usually did. She stopped, and he caught up to her.  
"Straight down from here," she said. He nodded and dove.  
Down, down, a very long way it seemed. Link wondered if he had enough air as he swooped under an arch. He caught a brief glimpse of a huge carving of a fish, which looked a lot like the front door of the Zoran Hall in Termina, and then he was inside. Light beckoned him upwards, and he shot out gasping into a warmly lit, roughly hewed cavern. He flopped on his back, panting.  
Martha's head popped out of the water. "Um, you might want to look around before you do that…"  
Link jumped up and spun, drawing his sword. A strange, helmeted quadruped was charging him. He leapt out of the way, though his legs felt sluggish, and stabbed it under the helmet from behind. It squealed and collapsed.  
Martha clapped. "Good, now you can recover your air." Her tone indicated she thought of pure-air-breathers as odd. "I'll leave you to the rest of it, then. And if you're looking for Instruments and things, you can have any you find, I guess. It's not like we'll be using them. Bye!"  
"Bye," Link replied, getting up and venturing further in.  
It seemed odd that so much of the cave was pretty dry. Martha and her family would have found it difficult to get around inside.  
When he exited with the Wind Marimba, undamaged by water or by water-moldorm, he made for the Village. Martha had somehow gotten into the pool just below the town, and Marin was talking to her. They were having a cheerful conversation about – him. He joined them, and the girls squealed in surprise, and Marin blushed. After a while, Martha left.

Link spent the rest of the day chatting pleasantly with Marin. It was nice to be with her – to be with someone who understood what he meant when he talked about strange things, someone who was cheerful and kind and gentle. Sometimes, she would sing a song, and then the animals would gather around. Link had a lurking suspicion that the big brown bear in the café had a crush on Marin, and a stronger suspicion that he was jealous of Link. Link laughed inside at that, but also felt uncomfortable. He felt he'd rather not think about it.  
If Navi had been there, she would have told him otherwise, he knew, and that made him more uncomfortable.  
The next day, Marin stayed in Mabe Village, playing with the quadruplets. Link went out to the land north of Animal Village, where he hadn't been yet. He met the owl, who helped him, directing him to a small shrine. Without his assistance, he would probably have bypassed it altogether.  
Link walked carefully among the tall standing pillars. The shrine was in a small, stony valley, and the sun was not yet high, so most of the valley was still pleasantly shaded.  
As he entered the darkness of the main building, he heard shuffling and clanking.  
Link stood motionless, only his eyes and ears moving.  
Ceremonial armoured guards advanced out of the darkness in a semi-circle around him. For a moment, nothing moved.  
Then, they attacked with huge axes.  
"Just once, I'd like to run into some holy guards who aren't trying to kill off the hero," Link muttered as he ducked and counterattacked.  
The suits of armour were empty, and the empty shards turned to stone and vanished. Link blinked. He had seen some odd antagonists, but this was stretching his credibility.  
The next room was blazing with light, and the door locked behind him, just like old times. A massive statue lurked in the centre of the room, clutching a giant spear.  
The statue creaked to life – "Of course," Link told himself with satisfaction – and forced him to jump back.  
Eventually he found its weak spot in its fragile joints, and pelted them with ice arrows.  
When it fell in pieces, he found a key in the ruins. The carved top looked like a cat's head, but not quite. It looked a little disturbing somehow.  
There was another room he hadn't gone into. He wondered if there was a door for the key in the next room.  
The next room was pitch black. Link hastily dug out his almost-forgotten magic powder and sprinkled some on the torches at the door. He took one with him as he walked forward, staring at the huge carving at the back of the room.  
It showed a picture of what looked like Jabu-Jabu and the owl, surrounded by grape vines… and there was a strange form of Hylian letters carved throughout it. Part of it was scratched as with sharp claws. It sounded like a poem.  
"To the Finder… The Isle of Koholint, is but an Illusion… Human, Monster, Sea, Sky… A scene on the lid of a Sleeper's Eye… Awake the Dreamer, and Koholint will vanish much like a bubble on a needle…"  
"Cast-away, you should know the Truth!"  
Link turned away, his mind reeling.  
"It… doesn't mean anything, does it?" he said aloud uncertainly. "It sounds like… it's all been set up for me… but that doesn't make any sense at all… completely incredible."  
He paused for a long moment.  
"If I wake the Wind Fish, Koholint will vanish as if it had never been?" He raced through his new acquaintances… Marin, Tarin, the quadruplets and the animals, Grandma and Grandpa Ulrira, and even Richard… they are real people. If the island were to vanish, what would happen to them? Would they vanish too?  
Link went back home, arriving near supper, and sat and stared at the sky. The sun set slowly as the hours went by, and the clouds deepened to rosy red and brightened again briefly to gold before everything turned purple.  
Marin tried to talk to him, seeing he was upset, but he put her away gently. He didn't want to tell her what he had read.  
Was that tablet even real? "Cast-away, you should know the truth", it had said, but if it was not the truth…  
His thoughts degenerated into semi-coherent blobs of logic and he went to bed, still trying to get it into something he could understand in words.  
The next day he felt differently. Going up to the woods, he tried to let himself understand the flashes of insight that were invading his mind. After all, he had decided not to tell anyone, so why did he need to put it into words?  
All that day, he hesitated, unsure whether to find the place to put the key and ultimately, the next instrument, or to leave the rest as proof against waking the Wind Fish and destroying the island "like a bubble," he thought resentfully.  
He returned with a grim face, and Marin sighed as she went about her chores. Link helped her, and then went to sword practice.  
When he was so exhausted he could barely hold his sword straight, he went back into the house.  
Marin was sitting in the living room, and she got up and smiled a little uncertainly, holding out a slim volume. "I found a really useful book… you might want to read this one next…" It was entitled "Instruments of the Sirens". Inside were descriptions of different instruments, including the Cello, the Horn, and the rest, and Link learned the next one was a triangle. Link had never thought of a triangle as being particularly musical in combination with other instruments. There were no pictures, though. The book talked about the properties of the instruments, including the fact that they were indestructible.  
"Well, that explains why the monsters didn't just smash them," Link said, "and prevent the chance of…" He looked up and smiled at Marin. "Thanks. This is great."  
"Are you having trouble with something?" she asked, innocently, smiling more naturally now.  
Link hesitated. "I… I don't really want to tell you about it… not yet…"  
"Okay. I wish I could help. You seemed so tired and sad today."  
Link looked at the floor. "I'm sorry."  
"That's all right," Marin said automatically. "Um… Good night."  
"Good night…"  
The next day, his moods were mixed. He wanted to go to the next dungeon – he felt refreshed and ready – and he wanted to hold back and think through his situation some more. The pile of Instruments on the table was already pretty big, even though they were individually small instruments.  
After breakfast, and listening to a once-more-happy Marin singing "Ballad of the Wind Fish" as she swept the step, his desire for action won out and he was off exploring again.  
He was getting pretty far a-field, and it took him almost all day to find the dungeon. To make up for it, he raced through it, defeating its monsters in record time, for him, and carried the Coral Triangle out in triumph to the sunset.  
Sunset! He looked at it in dismay. Even with his efforts, he was going to be very late indeed getting back. He would have to go carefully when he came to the river, too. Electric chus liked to congregate on the northern mid-section of it.  
He wished, again, for Navi and his other friendly fairies. A hero's life was just as lonely as he had heard, and while it didn't bother him a lot of the time, as he liked peace and quiet, the solo adventuring was pointing out to him just how forlorn he was without even his fairy to talk to and share things with. He was taking to talking to himself inside the dungeons, for goodness' sake!

He did get home late, later than last time, and this time, uninjured. Marin looked out to see him, but he waved a good-night to her while covering the yawn of the century with his other hand. She grinned at him and went back to bed.  
The next day, he took as a holiday, and spent his time mostly with Marin. True, Tarin showed him his collection of whittled figurines, and they went to tea with Richard, and Marin dropped off some embroidery or something for Grandma Ulrira, and Link played one game of ball with the quadruplets, but that took surprisingly little of the day. Marin stayed away from his darkness of the day before the day before that, and Link was determined to enjoy himself that day.  
Occasionally, dark thoughts would sweep across his mind, but he did his best to push them back into his subconscious. He didn't think Marin noticed anything.

The next morning, Link was rounding the corner of the house with an armful of wood.  
"Hey! You!" yelled a squeaky Moblin voice. "I gotta message for you! We got the girl, so-"  
Link dropped the wood on his foot. His arm shot out and the miniature Moblin was pinned to the wall of the house.  
"Where?"  
"We – we – If you want to see her again, stop trying to destroy the island!"  
" _Where is she!?_ "  
"M-mountains…"  
Link turned and threw the Moblin as far as he could. It bounced. "Tell your cronies I'm coming. I'll walk into whatever trap they've got set up. But if they've hurt her in any way, I'll…"  
"What's the matter?" Tarin asked, coming around the corner of the house. The Moblin squealed and scampered away.  
Link stood very still. "They've taken Marin."  
"What did you say!?"  
"They've kidnapped her. Excuse me. I need to go find her."  
Link took off at a run, his sword and shield bouncing on his back.  
Tarin stood frozen in shock, staring after him.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Link ran until he was out of the village and stopped. If he charged ahead blindly, he was going to miss the trail.  
Unfortunately, there was not much, although Saria had trained him well in tracking, and Moblins were well-known for being clumsy. That was part of the problem; there were so many Moblin tracks in that part of the island that to find Marin's tracks among them was extraordinarily difficult.  
He headed in the direction of the mountains when the trail grew so hard to find that there was basically nothing.  
And all the time his heart was full of fear.

He came to the mountains and paused. If he was a fat lumbering Moblin, burdened with a light, slim girl, how would he get up?  
That posed a problem for him, as there was only one way to go up into the mountains, but many ways to go after that. Link wrinkled his forehead in frustration and anxiety and ran again. There was a tower on the eastern horizon.  
Through tunnels, not forsaking the darkest corner, and to the most remote plateaus, he jogged along. Already he was getting tired, and the day was almost gone. The caves were dark enough, and he had no lantern.  
He came to the tower and sprang in.  
It was a long, hard trudge through the most difficult puzzles he had faced on the island so far. The first three-quarters were easy, but finding the dungeon's master was almost impossible.  
The boss was a robed skeleton, riding on a gigantic vulture-like bird. Content with hurling insults and threats at the young Hylian, he paid no heed to Link's repeated and insistent questions. Questions like: "If you don't tell me where Marin is I'll stuff that bird down your bony throat!"  
Using his bow and his sword, Link finally brought the bird down.  
"The girl… is not here…" wheezed the skeleton. "If you… touch the Instrument… we'll kill her…"  
Link stabbed the skeleton, shattering the skull. "Instrument'd just slow me down, anyway."  
He got out of the tower the fastest way he could, and headed back west. He looked at the Instrument before he left, and shook his head – it was a miniature pipe organ. There was no way he was carrying that all the way back to Marin's house. It could definitely wait – it wasn't going anywhere.  
It was pitch dark, and while he wanted to keep going, his body was making demands of his attention he could not ignore. It was exhausted, and if he was going in any more holes, he might not see the pitfalls until too late.  
Defeated by this logic, Link slumped down on a flat-ish rock and tried to sleep.  
His mind was keeping him awake.  
It seemed hours before he finally slept.  
The next morning, he was woken by the sun on his face and a distant voice, it seemed. When he sat up and rubbed his head, he didn't hear the voice anymore.  
Tiredly, he travelled west again.  
Then, suddenly, he heard the voice again. It was Marin's voice! She was calling for help, almost crying, it sounded.  
"Hang on, I'm coming!" he shouted and dashed off in the direction of the sound.  
He came around the side of a cliff and saw her. She was kneeling on a few boards suspended above a deep ravine by old, worn ropes.  
"Oh, Link! Please, help me! I'm scared of heights!"  
"I'm here." Link was almost smiling with relief. "Can you stand? It would make it a little bit easier."  
"I-I'll try," Marin quavered, trembling. She wobbled and sat down again. "No, no, I can't do that." She made a valiant effort not to cry.  
"That's all right," Link said, soothingly. "I can get you off like this. Hold still." He re-aimed his hookshot and fired it.  
He flew over the chasm and caught the girl in his right arm, landing safely on the ledge on the other side.  
"Are you all right?" he asked, looking down at her.  
She glanced up at him shyly, then looked down again. "Uh-huh…"  
"Thank goodness." He put his hookshot away and hugged her. "I – we were so worried…"  
"I'm sorry… I… I shouldn't have…"  
"What?"  
She tensed up and blurted out. "I… I went to sing the Ballad in front of the Wind Fish's Egg so that he could wake up before you get hurt trying to get those silly instruments!"  
Link stared at her wonderingly. "Y-you really did that?"  
Finally she looked at him, half-defiantly. "Yes!"  
Link almost laughed out loud and gave her another big hug. "Thanks for the thought, but I don't know if that works…"  
"It didn't," Marin said sadly, putting her arms around him and giving him a small hug back. "And that's when the monsters grabbed me, when I was coming back."  
She looked him directly in the eyes. "Thank you…"  
"I'm glad," he replied softly.  
Link didn't realize he was leaning forward until he heard someone else shouting, somewhere in the distance. Tarin was calling Marin's name.  
Marin, her lips only millimetres from Link's, jumped and whirled around. Link jumped, too, and both of them blushed.  
Tarin appeared at the base of the cliff; he couldn't have seen the young couple. "Marin! Thank goodness you're all right!"  
"Tarin, what are you doing here?" Link demanded. "It's dangerous!"  
Tarin grinned sheepishly. "Well, now, I'm not worried for myself. Right, then? Shall we go?"  
"Yes, I'll take you home." Link helped Marin down the steep slope. "And you know, Marin, dungeon crawling is sort of a hobby for me now, so if it's so dangerous that I might get hurt – which doesn't happen often – I stop. Except that usually by that point I'm addicted to that particular puzzle, and if I can't figure it out I get annoyed…"  
Marin giggled in relief. "I'm just glad that you're all right this time. Did you find any more instruments?"  
"Oh, right. The Organ of Evening Calm is in a tower somewhere back there. I'll get it later."  
"Oh, no, go and get it now! No point in waiting."  
"I-it's too dangerous!" Link protested. "You've got miles to go to get home!"  
"I made it here," Tarin pointed out. "You can leave Marin with her own daddy, can't you?"  
Link's forehead scrunched up in indecision. "The Moblins are pretty powerful, and you don't even have a weapon…"  
"Oh, is that all!" Tarin picked up a pretty big stick and smiled at Link. "I'll show 'em. Go get that Organ, lad."  
Link sighed. "I really think this is a bad idea…"  
He left them and travelled quickly back to the tower.  
Inside the tower, he got lost, and it was nearly night before he reached the top and found the Organ of Evening Calm again.  
He slept before returning to Mabe. He was ragingly hungry, as he hadn't eaten for almost two days.  
When he appeared, trudging out of the shades of the forest with the Organ under his arm, one of the quadruplets ran up to him.  
"Hey, Link! Have you seen Marin and Tarin?"  
"Why, what about them?"  
"No, I mean, have you seen them recently?"  
Link's insides went cold. "I saw them yesterday. Haven't they gotten back yet?"  
"No!"  
Link grew tense. Suddenly, turning, he flung his sword at a tree. The blade embedded itself halfway, quivering. Link let out a long, shaking breath as he tried to calm himself.  
The small boy's eyes were huge, and he said with trembling voice: "I think they must just have taken longer than you did… Tarin's not an adventurer, you know…"  
Link dropped the Instrument on the ground beside the boy. "Take this to their house. I'm going to find them."  
After only a few paces, he stopped and ran back. "Wait. I'll take it. I need something to eat, or else I'll drop dead. Please stay in the village."  
Link set the Organ down on the table in Tarin's house, grabbed a loaf of bread out of the kitchen, and ran out again, wolfing down a chunk of the bread as best he could.  
In the forest, he called the owl. "Owl! Owl, I need to talk to you!" His voice cracked twice, and after that he grew hoarse.  
After several minutes, with a flap, the owl alighted in a nearby tree. "Calm yourself, young hero."  
"Please! Tell me – if you can," he added with a frown, "- where Marin and Tarin are."  
"I saw them yesterday in the northwest corner of the island. Where they are now, I cannot tell you. Be calm, or else in your recklessness, you may lose more than your friends."  
Link paced back and forth frantically. "I just can't stop thinking about what the Moblin said the other day. If I got any more Instruments, they would kill Marin. And I didn't want to tell her, so I let them talk me into going and getting the next one, and now they've vanished." He turned back to the owl. "Do you see where I'm going with this?"  
The owl peered down its beak at the distraught Hylian. "I do. Indeed, your logic is as clear as crystal, so your question was unnecessary. Please calm yourself before I decide discussion with you is pointless."  
Link plunked himself on the ground and took deep breaths, trying to put himself into meditation the way Saria had shown him once.  
"Now," continued the owl. "There is still a small chance that they were merely delayed on their journey. I shall scout out the land. If you would return to Mabe Village this evening, I might be able to give you news."  
"All right." Link stood up again. "I'll look to the northwest. Thank you."  
He ran off, this time with firmer purpose in his heart.

The northwest part of Koholint Island is just as mountainous as the northeast part, and Link, after he had scoured the foothills, found himself wasting precious hours trying to enter the sheer walls of the mountains.  
At the top of one cliff, he was attacked and almost knocked off by something large and scaly. After wobbling for a bit and finally regaining his balance, not to mention fighting off a pair of black birds, Link found himself facing a large and irate turtle head.  
Link had never fought a giant hostile turtle before, but hitting it in the eyes killed it, and it exploded, leaving a large hole in the mountainside behind it.  
The Hylian left it there for a while, searching the rest of the mountain, but no answer came to his calls, and so he entered the tunnel.

He wandered for a while, sweating profusely as the temperature rose the further he travelled. The light was dim, and reddish, but it was there, guiding his feet around the pits in the floor. The caves at the end of the tunnel were more spacious, but almost suffocating with heat. Lava bubbled out of cracks in the ground now, and Link's adrenaline began to rise. This was another dungeon, he was sure of it.  
Chasing some flying monsters into another room, he heard something ahead of him. A low grumbling and moaning.  
Prepared to fight redead, Link dispatched the winged menace, steeled himself, and smashed in the locked door ahead of him.  
Three Moblins were slumped around the corners of the room, laughing lazily. One had its eye on the door in a suspicious fashion, and Link recalled sarcastically that he had been rather noisy coming in.  
Suspended over a pool of lava by chains on his wrists was Tarin, looking dazed and only half-conscious.  
Link sprang forward and stabbed a Moblin before it could do much else than grunt in surprise, and then leapt past it to get at one scrambling to pull a switch. Link had no doubt it would drop Tarin into the lava, and with almost inhuman speed pinned the monster to the wall.  
After the battle was over, Link frowned mightily at the dangling Tarin. The lever did not drop Tarin in the lava, but it didn't do much in that room either.  
"Tarin!" shouted Link.  
The man woke with a start. "Link? Oh, I'm glad to see you! Where's Marin?"  
"I don't know. Do you know how I can release you?"  
"No… oh, boy, I'm sorry… you were right…"  
"Don't think about that," Link said. "There must be some way to get you out of this."  
After a few moments, "Look, I'll go get some water – I saw some big jugs of it back a little – and then I'll cut the chains."  
"How will that work?" moaned Tarin.  
"I think it will," said Link, already back with the jug. He heaved it into the lava, and it melted, evaporated, and formed a small floating lump of rock.  
Link made an incredible jump and severed both chains with his sword. Tarin dropped neatly onto the lump of rock.  
"Jump! Quick!" Link shouted. Tarin hopped unsteadily onto firm ground.  
Both men breathed a sigh of relief.  
"All right, now," Link said authoritively. "I don't know where Marin is, but the owl is looking for her, too, and I need to get back to Mabe to hear what he has to say."  
"Did you get the Organ?"  
"Yes. But that's one thing that makes me especially worried…"  
"Hmm?"  
"I don't want to tell you… oh, I guess you need to know. When they told me they had kidnapped Marin, they also said they would kill her if I retrieved any more Instruments…"  
"We need to hurry!" Tarin exclaimed. "We shouldn't go home. I don't know where they've taken her, but it can't be far…"  
"No," Link said firmly. "I will be back as soon as I can, but I can't risk you, too. Please understand."  
Tarin was quiet for a few minutes, and then nodded. "You know best."  
Link looked very upset at that. "Unfortunately, I don't know that."  
"Tarin, I'm sorry. If I had never come here, or if I had been less careless, this wouldn't have happened."  
"That's not tr-"  
"Somewhere in my definition of a hero is the idea that… a hero fights to preserve peace and justice, and so… That someone I'm trying to protect is exposed to what I'm trying to protect them from means that I failed. At least you're still alive so I can do better next time. Not like… not like one of my friends…"  
Tarin was very quiet as they hurried back to Mabe in the lengthening twilight. Link was angry with himself more than ever. Still, he kept a small hope that if Marin were rescued, they would both emerge from this unscathed, emotionally and mentally as well as physically, if it were impossible they should be unchanged wholly.

The owl and, surprisingly, Richard, were waiting for them at Tarin's house. The owl's face was unchanged, but his mood seemed to lighten a bit as he saw Tarin was with Link.  
"I have to say that I found no trace of Marin on the rest of the island. I brought Richard here for safety. He must not be alone in his hut."  
"And also!" cried Richard. "I wish to aid you in your valiant quest to rescue the fair maiden!"  
Link stared at him.  
"My sword is at your disposal, great warrior."  
"Did you bring your Golden Leaves?" Link asked. "Because you would help me more by defending the village. And, that being said, you might as well move here permanently."  
"I do see your logic," Richard said, nodding sagely. "While before I might have doubted your skill, the tales I heard of you from Lady Marin have conquered my scepticism completely. You wish for me, and of course Tarin here, to relieve your mind of at least one pressing worry."  
"Yes, certainly," Link said. "Thank you, Richard. Goodbye."  
"Where are you going?" Tarin demanded. "You haven't eaten anything, and you need to rest."  
Link looked distressed, but stayed.  
Richard left, muttering something about a tower, and the owl flew north. Link didn't ask where he was going, but after eating, collapsed on the couch and fell into an uneasy sleep.  
The next morning, after telling Tarin to stay put and no excuses, Link headed back to the eighth dungeon.

He entered it and searched for a long time. The day was passing, and the heat was getting to him. It was nearly nighttime already.  
"Liiiink!" came a scream nearby. He whirled, and found that there was a door open just wide enough for someone to see him.  
"Marin!" he shouted back, flinging open the door and running to her – and all the lights went out.  
His hand brushed soft cloth and tight ropes. "Marin, is that you?"  
He heard a wimper.  
"Hold still." He sliced through the ropes tying her slim body to a wooden pole, and felt her arms slip around his waist like a drowning person. She laid her head against his shoulder and her smooth hair brushed his arm.  
Link flipped out his new Fire Rod and sent a bolt of flame jetting to the other end of the room.  
Several creatures sneaking up on him were caught in the ensuing blaze, but it also showed him something else. Several huge Moblins were stomping towards him.  
Link pulled away from Marin, ran to the door, and made sure it was shut firmly. Then he turned to the Moblins, took his sword in his left hand and the Fire Rod in his right, and engaged them.  
They fought fiercely, surrounding him, and Link was hard pressed from the start. Marin had sunk to the floor and hid her face in her hands.  
Link was having flashbacks to his fight with Shadow Link by the time he finally gained the upper hand and slashed the last Moblin's head off.  
He cleaned his sword and sheathed it, and ran back to Marin's prone form.  
"Marin?"  
Abruptly, she stood and flung her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder again. "Link…"  
He held her close. "You shouldn't have done that. You'll get blood on your dress."  
"Oh!" Marin said at about the same time. "You're hurt!" The shoulder she was leaning on had an ugly jagged cut in it.  
"Don't worry about it, please. You're unhurt?"  
"Yes." Her large brown eyes glittered in the fading firelight with unshed tears. "Oh, Link, I'm…"  
His lips brushed hers…

Late, very late that night, and only halfway home, they stopped beside a stream. Marin, who seemed to be almost completely recovered, was not recovered at all physically.  
She yawned. "Are you tired, Link?"  
Link smiled. "Not really… I think…"  
"You are, you are," she teased him. "Can we stop here?"  
"Sure, that's fine. I wish I still had some food with me. You must be hungry."  
"It's all right. Tomorrow, I will make a really big dinner, to celebrate."  
"Link, I-I am very grateful for what you have done for me…"  
"I told you, I can't leave you in the hands of enemies. That would just be wrong. As for my injuries, it's better that I get injured than you." Her eyes were so bewitching.  
"Still… thank you…"  
"Well, I do have one thing to say to you… You can't be a bird if you're afraid of heights."  
She laughed. "It's not actually the heights I'm afraid of, but falling from them!"  
"Same here."  
She laughed again, lay down and fell asleep in a patch of long grass.  
Link looked down at her as he sat against a tree. Her face was peaceful, as well as he could see it in the starlight. The moon was not yet risen.  
Suddenly, he felt very tired too. If Navi had been there, he would have lain down and gone to sleep as well, but he had to keep watch… had to…  
His eyes closed, and unconsciously he slumped over beside the girl, putting an arm around her protectively.  
Nothing attacked them that night.

Tarin was almost crying with joy the next day, and Link smiled for the rest of the day just to know that the world was back to normal.  
Life did go on as normal, and Link stayed away from the dungeon. And yet –  
The Moblins occasionally showed up, and Link always fought them off. But something was wrong with that, he knew. Allowing evil to exist, perhaps to flourish where he could not see, was against his principles.  
He was not afraid of them, or even of what they might do to his friends – he knew that much. Mabe Village was perfectly safe as long as he was there, and once when he visited Animal Village, he found that the bear was an equally competent guardian.  
But Link was getting restless again already. Although the quiet life of Mabe was a wonderful change from almost his entire life, and Marin's songs left him with nothing to wish for, he felt… dull. The Moblin raids did little to lift the monotony that assailed him after the second week of normal life. Link was furious with himself, but that did nothing to change his restiveness.  
So why, he asked himself one day, did he wait in the village? The last dungeon remained as yet a refuge of monsters, and with everyone safe, there was no reason to not go and defeat it.  
So Link went, one day, giving everyone full notice of his mission.  
The dungeon was not difficult, even though the monsters inside it had devised new traps and reset the old ones. There were only a few moments where Link was puzzled momentarily. And, at last, he fought the boss of the dungeon, a withered little imp that lived in the lava.  
"I will never allow you to play the Instruments of the Sirens! You cannot wake the Wind Fish!" it cried, throwing rock at him.  
Link frowned and flung fire magic at the creature. Shortly thereafter, it was caught full-on in a magic fireball, and burnt for real. It choked and screeched.  
"I'm done for… but so are you! Remember… you… are in the… dream too!"  
Link took this all very calmly. He was not planning to discover whether he was living in a dream or not anytime soon.  
The last Instrument of the Sirens was the Thunder Drum. It was a rather large side drum, with sticks included.

Link returned to Mabe Village for the last time, and waited.  
The monster attacks were growing much more vicious, even though all eight dungeons were empty. The other villagers went about their tasks happily and innocently, unknowing that every night, the young hero would take up his patrol around the edge of the settlement, driving away each and every would-be invader.  
Tarin began helping him to build a house for himself nearby. Richard had almost completed his own house, built in an empty field between the shops. Link was left without much choice, but chose to build his between the Ulriras' house and one of the shops. It was a tiny little house, which suited Link fine. It reminded him a little of his home in Kokiri Forest. Marin adored it, and called it cute.  
And this continued for months.  
Summer was passing, and fall was beginning to redden the land. Link had plenty of time to think on his position. Although he was busy in the community, guarding them through the night, sleeping from dawn until noon, helping in the small fields, fishing sometimes, and taking Marin to Animal Village and to visit Martha sometimes, most of those activities he did by himself. Yet he had all night, every night, when he wasn't actually fighting, to puzzle over his confusing feelings.  
His first confusion was over Marin. He loved her, and she at least liked him a lot, but he had not said or done anything since he had rescued her from the Moblins in the mountains. In relation to his second dilemma, over whether the island was a dream, he hesitated to tell her anything.  
He still had not decided if he should stay for the rest of his life, or leave. Mr. Write, who now lived in Animal Village, had told him that, when he was young, he had tried to sail away, but always found the island waiting for him after a few hours. Link, with no boat and no inclination to build one, decided not to repeat the other man's experiment. So, he had to either wake the Wind Fish, or live his life out on Koholint.  
As he pondered these things for weeks, he turned to the beach more and more often, wondering where Navi, Tael, Tatl, and Demon were. He imagined his friends, and decided their best course would be to go back to Hyrule. Demon would be an excellent substitute Hero in Link's place. But, knowing Navi, that was not going to happen.  
And one day, Marin came to find him, as he sat on a log with his chin on his hands, staring at the ever-changing waves.  
"Link, what's the matter?"  
He started to use the words he had for months, but stopped. "I don't wa-"  
"Marin…"  
"Yes?" She sat beside him.  
"I just have an awful feeling, all the time now. I'll tell you… It's that, once when I was collecting Instruments of the Sirens, I came across a shrine…" He told her about the carving on the wall. "I don't know if it's true… Marin? Are you all right?"  
She had turned as white as paper, and sat very still.  
He put his arms around her, and she was cold to the touch, although the day was hot. She yielded to his embrace, however, and turned and clung to him.  
"I… I'm just so startled. And scared."  
"Me too. I don't want to wake the Wind Fish if you are going to disappear. But things can't go on like this."  
"Like what?" She looked up at him with frightened eyes.  
"I'm sorry, Marin… I don't want to cause you any more pain…"  
"I want to know…"  
"I know. You have a lot of spirit… that's why I'm telling you… But every night, I go and patrol around the town… Monsters have attacked… Frequently."  
"Oh, I never knew! Why didn't you tell someone?"  
"I didn't want you to know. I know Richard's been making fun of me, but it doesn't matter."  
"Link, you are the kindest boy I know… There's a little selfish part of me that wants to make you stay here whether you want to or not…"  
"I- Oh, Farore, I can't go on…" He buried his face in his hands.  
"I feel… trapped. Here. On Koholint. Not even your friendship and the duty of protecting Mabe lifts that feeling." He waited for her to despise him.  
Her arm went over his shoulders. "I know."  
She had nothing else to say. Neither did Link.  
Until they stood, both their faces grave. Link was unused to Marin's expression being grave, and impulsively took her hands.  
"Marin, oh, Marin, I love you."  
She leaned away from him in surprise, and blushed redder than she had yet. "You… do? …Yes… you… do."  
"You say I'm the kindest person you know… but you are far more kind…"  
"I… don't… think so…"  
"It's true."  
He kissed her.  
They walked home in silence, but Marin's happy smile had lifted Link's spirits again.

It was not a month later when Marin had told the village of what Link had done for them and organized their own patrol. Link began to have his nights back for sleeping in.  
With Marin as his fiancé, he was happy and contented when he was with her. But she could not be with him always. Something was calling to him from beyond the horizon. He didn't know what it was. He didn't think it was Navi.  
Marin saw it, and ignored it patiently. Link felt himself an ingrate when she put her head on his shoulder so trustingly.  
Yet, bare weeks later, he felt he had to go.  
"After all," he said to Marin, "this may not be a dream. I want to know."  
"If we are a dream…"  
"I'll never forget you, I promise. Never, ever. You're too dear to me for that…"  
"Thank you. The Wind Fish will take care of us, anyway!"  
The villagers gathered, even the ones from Animal Village, to see him off. No one made big speeches, and hardly anyone wept. Everyone had something to say to him; everyone wanted to shake his hand or hug him. Tarin called him 'my son', which almost made Link cry, but instead he gave him a bear hug.  
Finally, Link kissed Marin one last time, and turned his face towards the central mountain.

The mountain was tall, but the path was smooth and straight. Though he had the eight Sirens' Instruments, he hardly felt their weight. At the top was the huge, pearly egg that was visible from all over the Island. It towered over him when he came right up to it.  
He pulled out his Ocarina, set it to his lips, and played the Ballad of the Wind Fish.  
Even if he never saw Marin again, that song alone would keep her with him forever.  
The Instruments floated into the air, sparkling, and began to play their own haunting melodies with his. He had never heard such music before.  
A deep fissure appeared in the side of the egg in front of him, and the Instruments fell to the ground, useless.  
Link looked in, but could see nothing. All was darkness, and there was no visible place to stand. Saying a quick prayer, he stepped in and let himself fall.  
He landed heavily on a green, marble floor. Lights flared around him, and he looked around. It was like he was in an arena. Looking up, he saw distantly something blue and glittery.  
Swishing noises from behind him alerted him, and he turned with drawn sword.  
A threatening black shadow crouched on the floor, constantly shifting its shape.  
"You are a fool, little hero. You are trapped here, and we shall kill you now. No one will ever wake the Wind Fish, and we shall control him."  
"You are the one who controls the monsters?"  
"We are the Nightmare Creatures." The shadow split into half a dozen smaller shadows and they crawled around the edges of the room around him. "There is no escape for you, and you have doomed your little friends. This dream will never end."  
"You will end, though," countered Link, and plunged his sword into the shadow.  
That did nothing. It took him several minutes for him to figure out their fighting style – one of them fought rather like Gohma, another like Morpha, another like Ganondorf – and several more to remember his most powerful weapon.  
Dropping his sword, his shield, everything, he unslung his bow. Dodging a razor-sharp shadow claw, he drew an arrow, set it, and called on the power of _light_.  
Shadow bone, flesh, and steel melted before the divine golden glow.  
The blue shape far away at the top of the Egg stirred, shifted, twirled, and drifted lazily down to near the young Hero. Link put away his weapons and waited it.  
It was a great blue whale, adorned with a jewelled headdress.  
"You have done well, young Hero. I thank you for dispelling the creatures of darkness. Play the song of Awakening once more…"  
"Wait one moment," Link cried. "What will become of Koholint?"  
"There is no way to know…"  
Link stood still for a long moment, and then lifted the Ocarina to his lips.  
The Instruments of the Sirens played again, and then fell and shattered into sparkling dust as Link felt himself blown upward on a geyser of water…

Link stirred groggily. His mind was made of fuzz, it seemed. He could feel it. An arm twitched, feeling for a missing rudder.  
What? Rudder?  
Where was Navi?  
An eye cracked open, showing hot blue sky. He was lying on something hard and uncomfortable…  
"Liiiiiink!" someone squealed, and something small and soft pelted his cheek. "He's awake!"  
His arm twitched and reached up to hug the happy little fairy mobbing his face. He blinked again at the sky, and sat up.  
He was on a small raft. Demon sat nearby at a makeshift tiller, the two other fairies bobbing around his head. They too came to help 'wake up' Link, who held their attacks off, laughing.  
He glanced around at the empty horizon and sighed quietly. No Koholint.  
And then a shadow fell across him and he looked up. The Wind Fish was flying through the sky, singing a familiar song… the Ballad of the Wind Fish.  
Link smiled gently.  
Demon smiled at the distant-minded Hylian. "Welcome back, O strange dreamer."


End file.
